But we don’t want to be like Ben. We want to have morals and ethics and be respectful and respected.
Sometimes you have to be really, really stupid in order to succeed.
sometimes you just gotta be loud, repetitive, and completely without shame
You just described most C-level executives.
Ben is a nepo baby. Born to rich and connected parents which guaranteed his success. Same with his sister.
The really important combo for right wingers is to be rich enough to guarantee success yet dumb and hate filled enough to speak their language.
Morons like Ben Shapiro have no problem being confident, as hang ups and trepidation tend to be traits that come with intellect. Hard to second guess yourself if there's nothing going on upstairs.
Smart people tend to get in their own way, and are prone to depression and suicide. This really isn't a time you want to be living in as someone with above average intelligence, unless you're a high functioning sociopath, then you can run the table, as intellect + no regard/empathy for how your actions may harm others is a potent combo in this dystopia.
Most people don't even need intellect to "succeed" in western culture, just a severe empathy deficit, which is easier to cultivate the less cerebral you are. "Just don't think about it" is an idiot's comfort zone.
Ben Shapiro and the like may have awful backwards views but I don't believe for a second that they're stupid. They know a lot of what they're saying is bullshit but it doesn't matter because the checks keep rolling in.
Are they geniuses? Absolutely not. But they're not morons like the slackjaws they preach to.
I think that if you repeat something enough though, you will start to believe it even if were "reasonable" before. I mean it's impossible to know what these people are really like but I honestly don't believe they are "reasonable" anymore. They might have been reasonable before at some point in their lives, but I think fame can really fuck people up.
I unfortunately know a lot about Ben Shapiro and have heard HOURS of his show due to a coworker a few years ago. He's a failed screenwriter who saw a niche he could fill in right wing media targeting the youth.
He's genuinely conservative and does believe a lot of what he says but when you've been doing it for as long as he has, hyperbole catches up to you. You have to raise the stakes. That last thing was bad but this thing is VERY bad!
You also can't keep complaining about the same thing if you want people to keep tuning in...so you find smaller and smaller things to rage about. That's where we've been with Shapiro for the past several years.
But what I'm really trying to get at is that it's a cop out in his favor to call him stupid. Stupid people can claim ignoranc and get an eye roll. Call him evil, a provocateur, a greedy bastard profiting off misinformation, whatever...because it's the actions he willfully takes that are the issue, not his level of intelligence.
I've said for years that offhandly claiming someone is stupid trivializes the damage certain people can do.
It is easy to call someone stupid and write them off, because they're stupid. It comes with the unspoken rule that you think they're stupid and not worth thinking about.
Which is exactly what someone like Shapiro wants. The less you think it's important to counter his claims, the more damage he does. You can apply this to most conservatives.
Absolutely. It's like giving them an excuse.
Basically what happened to Andrew "Dice" Clay. He was just a comedian and the "Diceman" was just a character hey played on stage on occasion. But people kept demanding he play the "Diceman" so that became his act all the time. And since he got positive reactions to that act eventually he just became that person all the time.
'The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.'
-Bertrand Russell
It's Russell's corollary to the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Ben "Moisture Evaporator" Shapiro
Ben "I want to fuck my Sister" Shapiro
Republicans and incest. Hand in hand.
But Cory Chase, Cherie Deville, and Alexis Fawx aren't republicans 🤔
Who?
Edit: Pornstars apparently lol.
You're welcome 😏
Isn't he the middle aged man who burnt the hair of a doll because he didn't like my movie for being too woke or something?
The dude spent 45 minutes ranting about the Barbie movie.
It's disturbingly obsessive. It's unhinged.
You kinda have to be a grown-up to get the movie (it's not that deep though), so of course an overgrown man-child like Ben Shapiro wouldn't get it.
I think it had numerous multifaceted points to make and made them from all sides.
It was female empowerment first and foremost, sure, but there were also strong messages about motherhood, manhood independent from women, finding purpose outside a hierarchy, and corporate bandwagoning for profit (which in itself is probably just a way for Mattel to seem like they're aware of their own faults).
It was a good movie and the only people who would be offended by anything in it are man-children who can't handle being told they're not so special.
(I am a white man FWIW, and thoroughly enjoyed the movie)
Which is a really sane and not at all prepubescent way of handling emotions.. 😒
Correct.
Oh yeah, haven't thought about that guy in a while. Just keep treating him like the joke he is.
Thank you for the entertaining movie
Yay
I'm starting to wonder if imposter syndrome and self-awareness go hand in hand. Or if maybe imposter syndrome is self-awareness gone wrong, or dialed up too high. Because it seems like you will never see imposter syndrome in people like Ben Shapiro who are absolutely convinced of their own superiority or intelligence. Narcissists are probably immune to imposter syndrome.
Damn, that's actually a pretty good take 🤔
It would make sense that heightened self awareness be correlated to imposter syndrome.
Yeah, this is Ben Shapiro at peak self-awareness 😂
Someone once asked if I thought I was even good enough to have imposter syndrome and my brain imploded that day.
I used to think I had imposter syndrome but it turns out I just really am mediocre.
It's really a matter of confidence. Whether or not Shapiro believes in what he says is irrelevant. He knows how to speak and will defend his points.
And he uses the gish gallop technique effectively. If you spew bullshit quickly enough, people won't be able to correct what you say.
I would love to see a debate forum that cut each person's mic after a single point. But I doubt any of the people I want to see in such a forum would ever risk participating.
he has no shame and questionable at best morals and ethics, it's easier to be successful and make money when you have those traits.
I have those qualities but empathy and concern for right get in the way. Oh, and I don't lie.
Edit: spelling
Stop having morals, you!
Sus
I am constantly having a similar thought. I'm a student and not a single thing I do is good enough. I've gotten honors and awards every semester, I get good grades, but not without professors tearing apart my papers with petty criticisms, not infrequently contradicting their own instructions. And then I think about what George Carlin said, or a paraphrase of it, "think about the stupidest person you know. Most people are even more stupid than that" or some such, and I'm just like ??
Intelligence is becoming a fucking rarity in the US, but because of that it's almost becoming a form of deviance that everyone is afraid of, questions, or dislikes. Or all of those.
Is there a lemmy equivalent to iamverysmart?
I think its something like "think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half of people are even more stupid than that".
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