free speech is under assault because of
a three-step argument made by the
advocates and justify errs of violence
the United States is a global engine of
growth not just because of free markets
but because of the values embedded in
free markets the only way to ensure that
political correctness continues to lose
is if we tell the truth I have a very
strong standard with regard to
incitement if I'm not telling somebody
to commit violence I am NOT inciting
them to violence we don't have social
fabric if we don't have community if we
don't know what America is about or what
we're doing in the world if we don't
have purpose and meaning it makes it
almost impossible to live a fulfilled
life left versus right matters a hell of
a lot less than right versus wrong and
right versus wrong is just another way
of saying true versus false well please
welcome my good friend who has appeared
on the show before the editor-in-chief
of The Daily wire who is the author of
several books ben shapiro who is here to
talk about his latest book the right
side of history
which is online and in stores today
welcome ben shapiro
I always introduce you as controversial
I have to you are controversial yeah
it's unfortunate but I don't know it
makes people think I hope so then that's
that's always the idea yeah well you've
written a new book and I've read it it
is very well done congratulations on
this what motivated you to write this
book well you know during during the
2016 election I was noticing the level
of anger that was just palpable in
public it was it was much larger than
the level of anger that I had seen in
recent times in modern American history
and at the same time the divisions on
actual policy seems actually narrower
than they had been in many areas in in
past elections when it came to how angry
we were at each other that the levels
were extremely high I was receiving
enormous numbers of death threats I was
the most targeted Jewish journalist
online by the body all right
why are we so angry to each other why
are we so mad and that got me to
thinking what do we even have in common
with each other anymore and that brought
me to the book the book is about two
mysteries you say the first mystery why
are things so good the second mystery is
why are we bullying it
so the first mystery is is why why are
things so good so things are
unbelievably good by any standard of
history we are living in the best time
in human history in the best place in
human history you're gonna live in
prosperity you're gonna be able to order
any products you want with the press of
a button it will arrive magically at
your door inside of three days it's it's
an amazing time to live in incredible
times live and at the same time suicide
rates are going up they're the highest
that they've been in decades our
dissatisfaction with our social
institutions is extremely high the level
of anger as I say at one another is
palpable we feel like our politics are
broken we're calling for revolutionary
solutions and so the first question is
how did how things get so good in the
first place and to do that I say we need
to go back to original principles what
created this civilization and I talked
about the fact that on college campuses
we don't teach these things anymore we
don't teach the classics we don't teach
about judeo-christian values we don't
teach about Greek reason we don't teach
the foundations of Western civilization
instead it seems like we have replaced
the entire conversation about what made
the West great with why the West sucks
and that's just not true the West
doesn't suck the West is pretty
unbelievable and that is true by any
standard and even take issues that are
deeply controversial like the issues of
race race
in America by any metric is it an
all-time low and yet we are treating
each other as the race issues are the
most pressing issues in America now
racial injustice and racial intolerance
and racism itself we should be calling
it out wherever we see it but to suggest
that Western civilization is the
repository or the creator of racism
that's just a failure to acknowledge
realities on the ground you say racism
is at an all-time low but you
acknowledge if you're the target of it
if you're the one that's suffering it
for you it's a hundred percent you might
be a part of a statistic where it's the
lowest it's ever been but if you're the
one that's being excluded you're the one
that's being marginalized you're the one
that's being impacted by it for you it's
a hundred percent doesn't matter where
it is statistically that of course true
and as I've said I was the number one
target of online anti-semitism in 2016
that does not mean that America is an
anti-semitic country America is an
overwhelmingly philo sometta country
that has been incredibly good to Jews it
works the other way too right we can
know we can recognize that our personal
experience may not in fact be indicative
of what American civilization is and we
have to separate those two things out
because otherwise we end up creating
false divides I think every good hearted
person in America wants to find
individual instances of racism and then
fight them the question becomes do you
see America as a repository of evil that
needs to be torn down and then replaced
with something else or do you see
America as a country that has great
principles that we have not always lived
up to but that we are trying to live up
to better and better every day right all
right well the book is the right side of
history by ben shapiro