Why Liberals Need Ben Shapiro (pt 2)

Jessie
Jessie
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

Conservatives love CNN — or rather they love to mock its headlines. They make fun of the NYTimes for the way it reports the news. Liberals love to laugh at the absurdity of Fox News, climate change deniers, or equate all republicans with “Bible Thumpers”. In short, we call the other side’s media sources fake news, and basically ignore them.

Many of my friends find going home for the holidays distressing because everyone has that uncle who drinks too much and goes on a rant about dirty Hillary and how Trump has fixed America. When my study abroad group learned one kid was a Trump supporter, we mocked him for it. I asked him “why did you vote for Trump?” He seemed confused, thought I was laughing at him. Nobody was asking him that. People who also did already knew why, and the rest of the world didn’t care to ask.

Why did we stop listening to each other?

I’ve found myself similarly amused by Ben Shapiro. Don’t misconstrue my meaning, I think he is brilliant. I think listening to him talk, and thinking about his ideas — whether I agree or disagree — gives me a better understanding of politics, the liberal and conservative agendas, and the line between news and opinion. I retrace his conclusions from his values to see where they diverge from my own. This helps me to build a path from my values to policy — and hence to politics.
He eloquently explains to me why he finds the rhetoric being spouted by the far left as insane — and more often than not he and I fall on the same side of most issues. Many liberals are surely cringing at that statement; many conservatives grinning with a sneaking suspicion that I am a closeted republican (perhaps I am a Massachusetts republican, I haven’t made up my mind on that yet).

No, I would argue we just both read the news, rationally.

Is PETA’s lobby against animal crackers insane? Yes, we agree.
Is the catholic church mishandling this scandal? Yes, we agree.
Is it because the church is too protective of gay people as Ben claims? I would be inclined to disagree, that this problem has been going on much longer, but I think he raises interesting points about how allowing homosexuality within the church allows relationships between male priests meaning gender separation is no longer enough to force chastity.

How can I “be woke” if I close my ears every time the conservatives start to criticize my party? How can I feel confident in my own view, if I have not considered the ideas they pose?

In a political disagreement, if your views aren’t shaken at the end, most of the time this is because you didn’t take the person you were debating seriously. While I would not argue everyone’s opinion should be taken seriously, you should not debate someone whose opinion you are not interested in.

Aside: If you aren’t interested in someone else’s opinion, don’t ask them for it. This goes for relationship advice you won’t take, directions you won’t follow, career advice you don’t want to hear, and political opinions if you’re not going to think about why they hold them. If they ask for yours, outline yours, and why you think it. Answer their questions. But why would you bother defending your opinion and trying to rip a hole in theirs, if you don’t care to take their thoughts seriously.

So, now, under the assumption you are interested in their opinion, try to figure out why they hold it. What is their reasoning? What values is it based off? What facts influence it? Do you agree with these values? Do you have counter reasoning? If you cannot understand how a rational person can hold this opinion, ask. If their answer is dissatisfying, ask clarification questions. Push back on issues. Until you and the person you are debating with can reach actual differences in values rather than facts, you have not exhausted the topic.

That is where politics get interesting, where you get to know people, and how to understand the differences between the right and the left. I like to retrace my own arguments and their arguments, to understand why we diverge.

You didn’t listen hard enough. Often we seek to be right in an argument, and to affirm our security in our views, rather than seeking to understand.

Always seek to understand.

Jessie

Written by

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