Ocasio-Cortez Likens Ben Shapiro Debate Offer to Harassment
Ben Shapiro's offer to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was rebuffed with a comment likening it to catcalling. This caused an eruption in the hellscape that is twitter with people on both sides hooting and hawing. The left said it was a sign of male entitlement, the right said it was obvious fear of losing a debate. To me it says that the left is fractured in more ways than one. There needs to be more liberals willing to engage conservatives. UPDATE: After filming this video Ben responded to my questions "did he reach out to Cortez through traditional channels before making the appeal" by saying "No, we didn't. It was a rather spur-of-the-moment thing." Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate)
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Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro posted a video to Twitter a couple days ago.
He called it a direct appeal to Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, offering $10,000 to her campaign if she would have a conversation with him.
He said they could frame it like a debate, and the money could go to charity if she so desired.
He noted that Cortez has said in the past, Republicans are afraid to debate her.
So, here is a conservative pundit offering to debate Cortez.
However, she responded by likening the appeal to a catcall.
Some people said this was an example of male entitlement, that she has no obligation to respond to him and doesn't need to give him the time of day, especially when Ben Shapiro is not a politician, just a commentator.
There are some things that I think are really valuable.
Free and open exchange of ideas, conversations, dialectic, and I think a lot could be gained by a conversation between Ben Shapiro and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
So it's unfortunate that something like this was shut down.
So let's take a look At the response to Ben Shapiro, from the left and the right, we'll take a look at his video, but there's something bigger at play.
I want to talk about the divide on the left between the Democratic Party.
Because it's not just the far left and the mainstream left and the centrists, it's actually much worse than that.
So first, let's take a look at Ben Shapiro's video.
On August 8th, at 4.17pm, Ben Shapiro said, Hey Ocasio 2018, what do you say?
Hi, I really wanted to make just a direct appeal to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the future of the Democratic Party, according to Tom Perez, head of the DNC.
Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez, I'm really excited that you've been elevated to that position, and I would love to have a real conversation with you about the issues.
You've noted you think Republicans are afraid to debate you or talk to you or discuss the issues with you.
Not only am I eager to discuss the issues with you, I'm willing to offer $10,000 to your campaign today.
For you to come on our Sunday special, we can have an hour-long conversation about all the topics under the sun, really probe your belief system.
And frankly, if you want to raise charity and we'll do it as a debate, we can do that too.
However you want to do it, I am more than willing to talk to you.
I would love to have this conversation.
So let's make this happen.
Let's make America a more civil and interesting place.
Upon seeing that video, I think there is a bit of a PR stunt going on.
That Ben Shapiro would publish this video publicly and offer this large sum of money says to me that he wants to generate public support and make a big kerfuffle in order to get Cortez to agree to this.
And honestly, even if she doesn't, he wins.
And of course, Huffington Post wrote up the story just this morning.
Ben Shapiro challenged Ocasio-Cortez to a debate and offered her campaign $10,000 if she participated.
I just want to stop and point out he actually has had conversation to probe her beliefs and values.
To paraphrase, and said they could frame it as a debate if they want to do something for charity.
I thought that was fair.
I understand that offering up these things in public can put pressure on an individual and can be unfair, but this is politics.
Ben Shapiro's got 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and it's what he does.
He challenges ideas and he comments on things.
He's not a politician himself, but don't be surprised if you're a politician and someone challenges you.
Cortez responded by saying, Now I want to give you my thoughts on this before we go through the mess of a disaster that is Twitter.
requests from men with bad intentions and also like catcalling.
For some reason they feel entitled to one. Now I want to give you my
thoughts on this before we go through the mess of a disaster that is Twitter. Look, if
this was a man, if Ben Shapiro challenged Bernie Sanders, nobody would be calling
it catcalling or likening it to sexism or calling it male privilege, but
that's what they're doing.
When you are in the public, people of all races, of all genders will challenge you, and it's not racist or sexist or transphobic or homophobic or whatever, if you challenge someone to a debate.
But in this instance, he started by saying, let's have a conversation, and then said it could be a debate.
So this is all a bit unfair.
Alternet, which is a left-wing source, said internet rips Ben Shapiro for 10k offer to debate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
He'll pay a woman just to talk to him, in quotes.
The proposal was an open display of entitled male privilege.
And again, I can reiterate the issue.
Male entitlement?
Male privilege?
That's really interesting because no one would accuse a man of being catcalled or of male entitlement for challenging another man.
So this, in my opinion, sets a dangerous precedent that women must be treated differently in politics or that we can't get over our sexual differences.
Jordan Peterson did an interview where he said he didn't know if men or women could work together because it's only been about 40 or so years that this has been happening.
But if this is the line of thinking, that calling for political debate, which is entirely normal within politics, punditry, and media, is sexist, is catcalling or male entitlement, then we have an absolute barrier between men and women interacting in the political landscape.
I personally don't believe that's true.
When I see what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, I think that's a cop-out.
She didn't have to respond at all.
And by making it akin to catcalling, does a disservice.
But there are many other opinions that have popped up in the hellscape of Twitter that I will now show you.
Liz Wheeler, who works for One American News, said, You know what's bad faith?
Accusing conservatives of not wanting to debate you, then pretending Ben Shapiro sexually whistled at you because he asked you to debate.
For your information, my team has also asked you multiple times to come on my show and debate, and you won't.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, who is an RNC committee woman, said, Thanks a lot for setting women back a few decades with this
Victorian BS.
You are running for Congress.
Put the big girl pants on and stop hiding behind your lady parts.
People want to hear you defend your positions and voters in your district are entitled to
that.
To which Ben Shapiro responded, Discussion and debate are not bad intentions.
Slandering someone as a sexist catcaller without reason or evidence does demonstrate cowardice
and bad intent, however.
He adds, And here is Ben Shapiro winning.
Whether or not his intentions were good or bad faith, he's getting press attention.
Because Cortez responded at all, he's getting press attention.
And because the left is criticizing him, accusing him of male privilege or of catcalling, he's getting more press attention.
It's a win for Ben Shapiro no matter what.
It's not going to do anything for Cortez other than the people who already like her will talk about it.
But conservatives or moderates who see her refuse to debate are going to side with Shapiro on this one.
There are others who will probably disagree with Ben Shapiro and think it's just a publicity stunt and that's why it is bad faith.
In response to me tweeting out a comment on the issue, Chris F. Nicholson on Twitter said, Send her an email or ask a third party to set it up.
Twitter is not a good faith offer in the same way that shouting at someone on the
street is not a good faith way to hit on them. Send her an email or ask a third
party to set it up. That was her point. I'm not going to assume what her point
was because she likened it to catcalling, but I will say yes, if Ben Shapiro wanted
to do an interview, he should reach out to her reps and ask for an interview.
Now, as we saw with the reporter from One American News, she claims they've done that and there has been no response, so it's entirely possible Ben Shapiro did.
I did reach out to Ben Shapiro for comment to see if he did actually reach out to Cortez through traditional methods, and at the time of shooting this video, he didn't get back to me.
Another person responded to me by saying, From this, I started thinking about the divide among the left.
into context. He doesn't work in politics. They aren't going to work together. This
would not be a meaningful debate. His challenge is a stunt, nothing more. Be
better than this, Tim." From this, I started thinking about the divide among the
left. How there are the Democratic Socialists far left and then there are
the more moderate mainstream and establishment liberals.
They're kind of at odds with each other. There are anti-establishment leftists
who are not regressive, who do not have Trump derangement syndrome, and
do not want to support people like Hillary Clinton. The left is actually
divided in a much more serious way.
I started to realize that...
Liberals aren't necessarily progressives.
They're actually different.
I recently got into a Twitter argument with somebody who was accusing me of not being a liberal when they identified as progressive, and we got into a back and forth where I assumed they were conservative, they assumed I was conservative, I think, and then it turned out I'm a liberal and they're a progressive, and we are at odds with each other to a very similar extent.
I'm willing to debate someone like Ben Shapiro, who I disagree with.
At the same time, the left-wing identitarians, the far left, I also don't agree with them either.
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For those that are interested, the link will be There is a difference between progressive, liberal, classic liberal, social liberal.
A lot of people think they're classical liberals when they're actually social liberals.
I've seen people say that they're center-left but claim to be a classic liberal.
And classic liberal is actually more akin to what we call libertarianism in the United States.
It's a typically right-wing position.
I'm center-left.
I identify as social liberal.
But that puts me at odds with some progressive values.
Not all.
I tend to be pretty progressive.
But it puts me at odds with the far left absolutely.
We need people on the left from every side to debate people on the right and people on the left.
I tweeted this out earlier that we need more liberals who are willing to debate conservatives.
And by this, I don't mean people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
By all means, her as a progressive socialist, democratic socialist, she should debate people, especially as a politician.
But there are too many social liberals who have kept their mouths shut.
I have friends who are social liberals.
They do not want to vote for Hillary Clinton.
They don't want to vote for Donald Trump.
They liked Bernie Sanders, but he was a little too far left for them.
Right now, it seems like the centrist, moderate social liberals are not engaging in the debate.
And the left is being overrun by identitarians and the far left, like socialists and communists.
And I think the reason is fear.
All of this, in my opinion, spells a pretty dangerous future for the left.
Because we're fractured to a point where the differences between social liberals, progressives, and the far left are so pronounced that we're not going to agree on anything, and that progressives are going to assume I'm conservative because I'm slightly to the right of them.
They think they're the center when they're not.
They're actually on the left side towards the middle, and then you have the far left that thinks they're conservative too.
But let me know what you think in the comments below.
We'll keep the conversation going.
How do you feel about Cortez's response to Ben Shapiro?
And how do you feel about Shapiro's appeal?
Do you think it was in good faith or bad faith?
Do you think it was a PR stunt?
Or do you think he's really just trying the only way he knows how to get that debate, to get that conversation with Cortez?
Comment below.
We'll keep the conversation going.
Stay tuned.
New videos on my second channel, youtube.com slash TimCastNews, coming up at 6 p.m.
