I never listened to Ben Shapiro before but, in view of the recent upheavals, I watched several episodes of his show. As a result, I can now say with confidence that Ben Shapiro is a very typical neoliberal. Neoliberalism is a variety of liberalism, as the name demonstrates. Shapiro, unfortunately, doesn’t have the intelligence to notice that there’s not much difference between his “just move” and a more self-aware liberal’s “just change your pronouns.” The underlying worldview in both cases is that human beings are endlessly malleable and fluid and that any form of grounding, rootedness and attachment is bad because it puts constraints on human freedom.
Individual freedom as the greatest value is at the core of liberalism. Again, it’s in the name. This is why a neoliberal is always ultimately a liberal, no matter which momentary obfuscation around this term Ronald Reagan created back when I was a toddler.
People get upset when I contradict political self-identification of individuals. But I’m only being consistent. Self-ID is meaningless to me both in terms of biological sex and in terms of politics. Self-awareness is the rarest of traits. If a dude proclaims liberal beliefs, what is it to me that he’s unaware he’s doing it?
Do you believe that any constraints on the human freedom to remake oneself and refashion reality are bad?
You are a liberal.
Do you believe that objective reality should cede to the force of human desire?
You are a liberal.
Do you believe that any sacrifice of individual desire and will to the interests of the community is bad?
You are a liberal.
Do you react more positively to the word rights than to the word obligations? Do you react negatively to the words limits, duty, and constraints? Do you believe that you are the way, the truth and the life?
Liberal, liberal, liberal.
Yes, it’s a very seductive way of seeing the world until the exact second when the unbending reality of frailty, infirmity, or age hits you smack dab in the kisser. Then it becomes less fun to “just move”. But that’s a whole other discussion.
Other than the fact that he’s a sincere, unclouded neoliberal, Ben Shapiro is a great dude.