two companies taking heat after bowing
to the left israel launching a pressure
campaign against ben and jerry's over
its decision to boycott israeli
settlements in the west bank
while a coca-cola executive refused to
condemn china's human rights abuses
during a heated senate hearing on
tuesday
ben shapiro is author of the new book
the authoritarian moment
and host of the ben shapiro show on the
daily wire which gets me back and forth
as i walk to work um and listen to you
every day ben what do you think about
this
ben and jerry situation i know that in
theory you know you've been against
boycotts but
this time what do you think you know the
the fact is that
i was against boycotts maybe 10 years
ago and now because the left keeps
renormalizing all of these institutions
turning all of these corporations into
basically weapons of the woke
this means that everybody who doesn't
want to see that happen if you want to
see corporations go back to neutral
we're going to have to establish some
form of mutually assured destruction
here where we say listen you guys go
woke you go broke and
and if you want to go back to neutral
then we will start patronizing your
product again but the problem is that
there's a vast asymmetry in which the
left decides that they're going to
weaponize
corporations against people who disagree
and then the right says well you know
we're against boycotts well that sort of
asymmetry ends
with the renormalization of every one of
these corporations in favor of the left
and that has to stop obviously what do
you think will happen in this
in the end on this ben and jerry's front
uh
it seems like unilever has no incentive
to continue
uh broader boycott of israel um i think
that states are going to start using
anti-discrimination laws
to crack down on ben and jerry's and for
folks who don't understand that states
do have the wherewithal to crack down on
corporations that violate for example
anti-discrimination laws with regard to
racism that's also true for
anti-semitism that is that is why ben
jerry's is running afoul of the law in
certain states
uh i think that ben and jerry's is
unlikely to back down but
frankly i think that israel doesn't need
ben and jerry's ice cream i think there
are plenty of other brands they can
there's plenty
that's right i also wanted to ask about
this senator tom cotton was
basically grilling the human rights guy
at coca-cola yesterday about china watch
this
senator we stand up for what is right
across the world we apply the same human
rights principles in the united states
that we do
across the world every single one of you
refused to say a single word by all
appearances that will cost you
one bit of market share inside of
mainland china
thoughts on that ben i mean that's
that's obviously true
the great lie with regard to opening
china is that it would moderate china if
we opened our markets to them and got
them to open some of the markets to us
instead china very clearly under xi
jinping
sees the opening of the markets as a
weapon to use against american
corporations converting american
corporations into propaganda outfits
just to guarantee the market share you
can blame corporations for that but in
the end it's going to have to be
governments like the united states
government like the governments of the
eu
they unify and isolate china
economically otherwise corporations are
going to be in a sort of
race to the bottom in terms of value
because they frankly can't afford not to
do business in china if all of their
competitors are
it reminds me of my favorite sayings if
there's a race to the bottom
somebody could win it indeed i also
wanted to ask you about this national
review wrote
why they hate ben shapiro and us
basically saying if you pay attention to
the left's pundit and intellectual class
the people they hate more than anyone
the targets that really raise their
blood pressure
are conservatives who are educated
conservatives who are well-spoken or
well-read
conservatives who speak the language of
the upper middle
class ben you have a new book out the
authoritarian moment what are you trying
to get across to here that might be
driving the left a little crazy
i mean the basic point that i make in
the authoritarian moment is that
everybody right left and center with the
exception of the far left feels
ostracized and
isolated in modern american society you
say the wrong thing you end up basically
wished into the cornfield
there's going to be blow back to that
because the institutions have been taken
over nearly every major american
institution has been taken over
by the left the people on the left don't
really like when you notice this they
would prefer that we all focus
in on members of the authoritarian right
who represent a pretty small contingent
uh they don't like it when you when you
actually take note of the fact that
serious
institutions with serious power to wield
against americans are using that power
to crack down on political dissent which
is why he's incumbent on us to notice it
and to fight back against it
um oh maybe a quick thought from you
about the new
uh apparently the mask mandates could be
coming back
insane insane i mean the cdc is not
basing this on any level of science
according to the cdc and zone statistics
161 million americans have been
vaccinated we've had about 6 000
breakthrough cases resulting in
hospitalization which means that your
chances of being hospitalized thus far
in the united states if you're
vaccinated
your chances of being hospitalized about
one in 27 223 and on the basis of this
we are now asking
people who are vaccinated to mask up to
protect everybody else
who already has had the chance to get
vaccinated and by the way i'm not seeing
the the unvaccinated screaming for the
vaccinated to mask up i'm seeing
vaccinated members of the cdc screaming
for the vaccinated to mask up
vin shapiro good luck with the book we
loved having you we'll hope you come
back thank you
thanks so much