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Pisses me off that when they talk about Obama’s divisiveness their one example is a normal expression of empathy. They wanted so bad for it to be a cultural flashpoint (being charitable) they tried to make a murderer into a hero. That failed and now it’s just a thing that happened in a vacuum.

Ben Shapiro used to do gloating troll posts every year on Trayvon Martin's birthday mocking people who were upset by his death.

Just like no right-wing media person or politician has even called out Nick "We Got Shooters" Fuentes for this boastful threat to his supposed enemies: bsky.app/profile/nota...

Ben Shapiro is a damn fool.

And he is making clear how utterly and completely in a bubble the far right is. They aren’t even able to conceptualize that they are doing anything….well…at all

shapiro's still trying to pitch that the majority of black americans hated obama and obama was worse for blacks than any other president under the sun (almost like he's judging obama's presidency different than judging others hmmm)

This man is so unbelievably stupid. "That actually wouldn't happen to your son **unless** he was mistaken for a prowler" BUT THAT WAS THE POINT BEN

“These people”

"We gave you a Black president. What more do you want?" -White people who voted for John McCain

Hint: It wasn't because racism was truly "over" and people were merely horribly offended that Black POTUS asserted that it wasn't. Their rationalizations and sophistry to justify their projection really just prove him right. NOBODY. IS. FOOLED.

The failed screenwriter has one skill, and that is creating fictional narratives that are compelling to his base. He understands political movements need resonant myths. And in his case, it’s telling white people they bear no responsibility for racism, and that their animus is actually righteous.

Trayvon was not "mistaken for a prowler." He was followed on his way home after shopping in a convenience store.

Someone please tell old Mitch "tick tock, worm food, tick tock."

Even his basic point of “this type of thing wouldn’t happen to you because of your class” is nonsense en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_L...

If one supposes all black people are criminals, a black person existing is going to look like a criminal, QED

Obama's Justice Department owes the Brown family a huge apology.

Ben Shapiro is still full of joy about Trayvon Martin being killed. Jesus Christ.

Why does “my son could have been Trayvon” trigger people so much? I mean, it’s literally true.

he literally just said the same thing Obama said which is wild

He seems to believe that racism stopped the nanosecond Obama was inagurated while ignoring that faux lynchings were happening across America where dummys dressed like Obama were being hung from trees and light poles. Nobody can "Move past it" cause too many whites are racist evil assholes forever.

If there’s anyone less suited to talk about toning down political rhetoric, it’s definitely Ben Shapiro, the man who inspired a dude to shoot up a mosque

And, of course, ignore the fact that Trayvon was, indeed, as innocent of any mischief as Obama's White House-bound son would have been; the point being, that Blackness--especially, young male Blackness--is, in Shapiro's and George Zimmerman's bigoted eyes--suspicious, if not criminal, on its face.

Shapiro might want to take a sabbatical.

This is the guy Klein thinks having a long “deep” conversation with will bring about revelation and healing

It is hard to imagine that adult, educated people believe these things

Megyn Kelly said something similar recently about how Obama was “so divisive” and it is pure projection and insanity actually. These are the same people screaming their white daughters aren’t safe anywhere, yet say everyone else is playing the victim of some imaginary evil? 🤦‍♀️

This fast-talking prick, CK & other Rightist talking heads have been accorded popular notoriety beyond anything they’ve earned for guys who contribute nothing of value. They use their individual provocative, performative schtick$ to enrich themselves on the backs of the people they marginalize.

It's so stupid.

“and unless your son was mistaken for a prowler” as if a mistake can’t happen in our beautiful post racial world, goddamn “I thought he was a prowler” could be the civilian equivalent of “I thought he had a gun”, a justification that rarely works outside of black males

For anyone who might enjoy watching Shapiro’s comments rebutted properly one fact at a time, that genius Hal Sparks does a great job at it…

Will Republicans ever find agency?

To be fair, I don't think that's how it went for white public opinion either.

this is particularly galling because no one on the left was excited for "Obamacare". No dems even CALLED IT "Obamacare". That was a name REPUBLICANS stuck it with to try and get racist supporters to hate it by naming it after a black guy.

I think he heard the tongue in cheek jokes about "now that we have Obama racism is officially over" and took them seriously. Numbskulls like him are the reason we have to put /s on even the most obvious quips.

Reading Ben Shapiro or Charlie Kirk makes my skin crawl.

Ben Shapiro is Charlie Kirk at 1.5x speed and with a more annoying voice. Otherwise same bog standard gutter racist and completely unoriginal thinker.

slimy little racist cunt

Constantly playing rap on the off chance I bump into tiny Ben

Ben Shapiro, 85% accuracy:

I’m continually struck by how devoid of intellectual rigor rightwing “thinkers” are You can see why they hate Universities. Even a minimally academic approach to analyzing what he’s saying would show it completely empty. They willfully ignore any metric on racial gaps let alone their causes… Jfc

Ah yes the famous victim of the Trayvon Martin murder: the murderer

"Ben Shapiro is doing politics the right way."

Ben has grown up into a real boy now.

That's why Biden lost! He failed to reclaim the Bad Jew vote! 🙄

Some real Kapo shit there from Ben.

Huh bsky.app/profile/shou...

re bsky.app/profile/numb...

that's a lot of "Bad Jews" Ben, eh?

I am a badass bitch of a Jew, he’s right about that

Billie Eilish singing into a fan "I'm the baaaaad Jew"

In which we discover further evidence that Ezra is a credulous chump.

Oh, I wish I had not read those this morning. These racist Republicans make my heart hurt.

ah c'mon man, he was only *check notes* 28 years old at the time, and you can't take a *checks source*, umm, self-contained tweet out of... umm, context

I read his post about the lynching of George Zimmerman and thought I missed it. Damn

“The next race war will come not from racist whites, but from racist blacks and Hispanics who feel empowered to act on their racism by an administration that excuses all minority misbehavior.” Gotta love the classics.

I understand that accurately quoting any right wing political figure, especially if done in context and with the full quote, is now a hate crime

Wait did he confuse OJ and Rodney King?

Hey @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social, how'd that talk about de-escalation go with Ben Shapiro?

The fact that Shapiro thinks his comments on Obama and Trayvon are illuminating in THIS moment is so mind boggling. The interview tells us nothing that can't even acknowledge the implications of its own conclusions because that would give the game away!

Ben is still ranting about Trayvon in that Ezra Klein interview. Really a keyhole into their entire worldview: Black youths ought to submit to interrogation by random civilians, and if they object to such treatment, their homicides are justifiable.

Wait, he wrote a novel? Is it as unintentionally hilarious as I imagine?

They never are. Appealing to people's racial and cultural grievances is their go to strategy because nothing else works. Did you think these people could attract an audience talking about health care, entitlement programs or tax policy ?

Jesus Christ, the ”bitter clinger” grudge is coming up on twenty years old now, they will never forgive Obama’s off-the-cuff plea to be charitable to their side even as they demand the head of everyone who dares quote Charlie Kirk’s and Ben Shapiro’s scripted declarations

And that's what makes this so deeply disturbing. He was a Christian nationalist political operative, and he's being mourned as if he was the president himself.

That's so removed from reality. A white guy did push Obamacare: it was Mitt Romney's plan for Massachusetts.

"Everyone thought my response to Charlie Kirk's murder was tone deaf and ahistorical. On reflection, here's Ben Shapiro."

And this is supposed to be Shapiro being conciliatory! Klein: We need to find common ground with each other Shapiro: The entire liberal project is based on lies

Also, Obamacare was literally Romneycare, with even more conservative wishlist stuff tucked in. He really gives the game away there at the bottom of that screenshot: the deplorables went crazy against the ACA because it was a black guy's idea, and he knows it

Thats because Klein practices intellectual access journalism. It's still access journalism, but its intellectual shaped

This white lady saw Obama's election as a good sign for the future. A new check point, to consider a "start." Definitely not an end.

Also, the tea party stopped caring about deficit spending and bailouts when a black man was no longer in the White House. Looking forward to their rallies when Trump bails out soybean farmers.

He realizes it. He's hoping that others won't. If others don't then it can become acceptable dialog for use later.

It's not the cops that were racist, you see, but the door, itself, for refusing to open for the Black man who lived there 😳

And upper-class son in a dark complexion won't have that problem? Tell that to Camille Cosby's son, shot dead on the highway.

Klein should have understood who Shapiro is. No matter one's opinion of Klein, they aren't equals in any sense. Klein has elevated someone who doesn't deserve it and should have had more respect for the position he is in.

Ben’s prediction of what would happen if Kamala lost a landslide election

Obama was elected, black people got uppity, now we need the fascism

Wow. Maybe @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social should have that POS on his podcast. Oh, wait....

Obama: "there is a history of systems within the US that oppress Black people and other minorities" Shapiro: "because you're a Black man in the white house, that's a lie" Trump: "i am a (the best?) white christian and the US has systems in place that oppress white christians." Shapiro: "true."

Ezra has always been a grifter, people just ignore that with white dudes, especially dumb ones like Ezra

He's transitioning into Matt Yglesias.

he’s a quisling. he ain’t on our team

For years, people said "we elected a black president, racism is over" as a joke, not realizing that millions of people believed it completely seriously, and that those millions would go rabid at the suggestion that racism still existed

How is this not an admission that yeah, it could have been Obama's son. "Unless he is mistaken for a prowler" Okay, so then it could happen. That is, in fact, what happened. This is why there is no point in talking with these people. The fact that they're just deadass wrong is taboo.

Ben Shapiro makes Obama sound like racism Jesus. All past sins were supposed to be washed away with his election and we won't talk about racism anymore. He wants everyone to be grateful to white folks for doing the right thing one time.

So if there’s not a system of white supremacy, what exactly was MLK’s dream that needed a capstone, Ben.

he didn’t bother come up with something original because he didn’t expect to be challenged by Ezra and he was right.

A truly amazing leap there in the quick slide of "That would never happen to your son... except in the very common circumstances where it would absolutely happen to your son exactly as it happens to the sons of many fathers just like you."

So bad. When I was working, I remember talking to one of my co-horts, a black lawyer. Guy who, like all the other 1st yr lawyers in the firm, got himself a BMW b/c "I passed the Bar!" He was pulled over pretty regularly, basically b/c, "Why you driving this cool car?" While wearing suit/tie.

Im tired.

Hang on, he did ted understand that Obama was being hypothetical? Speaking as a parent of black kids? I remember when he said that and I understood. Is this supposed to be an example of Obama lying?

And if something “had” happened to his daughters, it wouldn’t have been racism, they were to blame because of their own actions (“what were they wearing”) etc etc. People like Shapiro projected their own desires onto Obama because what they were hoping for was something more akin to Clarence Thomas

I'm surprised he didn't at any point stop the conversation and ask politely for him to stop interrupting him. It wasn't a conversation - it was Ben talking really fast and Ezra trying to respond and then Ben interrupting him while he's making his point. Does this guy not know how conversation works?

Shapiro is a desperate opportunist looking to generate revenue with his precious Daily Wire facing bankruptcy. He's looking to fill the vacuum that Kirk has now left by courting those right wing megadonors and PACs that bankrolled hate group TPUSA for the last 8yrs.

Ooof, I remember Nikole Hannah Jones and T. Coates (I'm sad to say it was on Ezra K's podcast) arguing that when Obama said the thing about Trayvon, that was the turning point for white allies, the "post-racism" veil dropped. Really stuck with me. Damn. They were of course right.

Truly stunning thing about Ben is he can't even make the obvious connections with his own thoughts, let alone reality

Stay tuned! Ezra is going to be doing this until the end of time. Not just Charlie Kirk-lite. The world definitely needs the opinion of two cisgendered straight white guys on their feels. (Speaking as God's chosen person, pale, stale, penis procreator person)

How are these inhuman ppl spawned in our society - Nick Fuentes- Ben Shapiro- Alex Jones and the list goes on. Ppl with ugliness in their hearts because they were not hugged or loved enuf so they want to hurt others.

Another bad-faith conservative argument. NEVER is there the possibility of sincerity on the part of their interlocutors. Pure projection.

What’s he looking to get it so he’s a hero?

Nothing to see here. Just a completely normal guy out there spreading "opinions."

It's really the RE-election of Obama that drove these right wing racist assholes off the deep end. He wasn't just a sop to the lesser peoples proving all racism was solved forever, he was Successful and Popular and Better Than so many previous white presidents and it broke them utterly.

The "no, it wouldn't happen to your son" is an article of faith on the right, all evidence to the contrary.

That is some smug bs right there, and mendacious as well. Black people made exactly what up? No support for that statement? Self serving right wing claptrap.

like how Trump's claim to fame for his first term was undoing all the good Obama had done, if that isnt blatant oppresion im not sure what is

Shapiro, makes subtle changes to what folks really say such as ‘My son could have been Trayvon’ when what Obama said was “If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon" And then Shapiro bases his ‘And people on the right saw that as a lie’ argument on the lie he told about what Obama said.