Why Liberals need Ben Shapiro (pt 1)

Jessie
Jessie
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a democrat. In fact, the handle of this blog is a bad joke about how I put the JW in SJW. That being said, I have as many problems with the “shouty left” as I do with conservatives.

Going to University, in a blue state, with highly well educated students, and being from Massachusetts, means I am basically surrounded by liberals — this is not to say there are not extraordinarily intelligent conservatives but the general University of Chicago population is very liberal. Hence, since long before I was paying any attention to current events, my perspective has predominantly been shaped by the opinions of my parents, teachers, and friends — all of whom are extremely liberal.

Following the 2016 election, which the New York Times told me there was a 95% chance Hillary would win, I stopped reading all news. It made me too sad, angry, but most of all betrayed. While it would take a year and a half to pick back up following the news with any kind of interest, beyond the occasional podcast, my hiatus from entering politics allowed me to do some reflection on the kind of exposure I wanted to the news.

We live in a time where it is very easy to surround yourself with articles, news papers, and alerts which will validate the opinions you hold. If I want to listen to Andrew Ross Sorkin talk about the news, and nobody else, I have that option. If I only want to read about Jeff Mueller, Stephanie Clifford, and how Michael Avenatti should be president in 2020, I have that option.

But, I shouldn’t take it.

The fact that I believe in these people, agree with their opinions, and take their reporting as fact, is the very reason they are the least useful news sources to me. When you read a novel in class and are forced to write a paper about it, you reach beyond the text to make an argument about the merits and nuance of the Author’s work.

Why isn’t this also true of us reading about current events — something with much more bias than almost any novel?

We like the affirmation of our own ideas, and to read the opinions of people we hold in high esteem. However, this also means we avoid the ideas of those we disagree with — which is why we put ourselves in echo chambers of our own opinions.

In other news, I have recently started listening to Ben Shapiro — and if you read the second half of this article, I will tell all my liberal friends why they should too.

Jessie

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Jessie

Just a girl thinking about what goes on in the world; this is just an open space to unload thoughts from my head. University of Chicago ‘20