"Right side of history" doesn't in any way imply a metaphysical ethics but of course the YUNG Socrates wants to imply that it does.

Exactly. This is exactly the false equivalency that phrase is used to elicit.

...What? No man not at all, not even remotely.

"The right side of history" as a phrase is definitely deserving of critique, above all since it's a bullshit lib platitude deployed in support of a notion of incremental progress that papers over the massive injustices and betrayals of history that shaped and shape our current moment (i.e. saying you're on the "right side of history" because you support gay marriage is just a way to pat yourself on the back and exculpate yourself from imbrication in broader structural inequalities, including those that fostered prior forms of discrimination). It's especially heinous when it's applied to figures like Clinton who only recently find themselves on "this side," but it's more generally employed by dopes who presume that there's an inevitable teleology toward a more tolerant and just society (which, lol).

But that doesn't make Benny's critique here salient in any way, because you can believe that there's a right side of history (i.e. that of the victors) without in any way presuming a transcendental ethic. All it takes is a belief that the "right side" is not ordained by god but, as I said above, is the end result of an unstoppable march toward a certain vision of the world (history's arc is long but it bends towards justice and all that). Moreover, people very clearly do find themselves on the wrong side of history in a specific present moment, and while certain figures can of course always be recuperated, that doesn't mean that the phrase lacks any explanatory power whatsoever. Slaveowners have found themselves--or would, if they came back to life--on this proverbial "wrong side," which is why their statues are being popularly torn down.

None of Ben's fans are probably smart enough to grasp this but even the claim of pandering to your wet brained audience doesn't excuse ol Ben of the fact that he's reading a non-materialist morality into a phrase that doesn't at all implicate such a stance--and more likely indicates that he's not in any discernible way an astute reader or thinker.

I agree with most of that, and I hate to defend or appear to defend Shapiro, but the first section is the context in which he objected to it. While I think you are mostly correct there, the phrase itself is often used as a part of a technique to shame someone into agreement by implying history will judge them as its judges slave owners. It’s not just “I was on the right side of history” it’s “you are on the wrong”. Which is largely fucking ridiculous.

Between this and getting schooled by Sean Illing in an interview, Ben’s book tour is not crushing it.

Also great were the parts where he claimed videos his company edited and put up on their YouTube channel were nothing to do with him, and where he accused a right wing interviewer of being a leftist for disagreeing with him.

The "cool kids' philosopher" as a nickname for this 5th grade reading level hack whose biggest fans play Minecraft in their dorm rooms is funny, but it's also just so fucking sad that that's a line that ran in supposedly the biggest left-leaning newspaper in the country.

Here was that interview:

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/9/18410886/b ... of-history

Any time the phrase "Judeo-Christian" roots/philosophy/principles/heritage gets thrown out, my bullshit meter pings heavily. Bill O'Reilly used to use the same phrasing back in the day.

Ben Shapiro running out of an interview like the little hateful gimp bitch he is, does totally deserve its own thread.
But who needs another thread subscription

This is glorious.

I have no idea who Ben Shapiro is, and after watching that I feel pretty good about the decisions I've made that led me to that.

He’s an idiot who famously said ‘facts don’t care about feelings’

Unless they’re his, it seems

Yeah that's what I figured.

I bet he also says outrageous things to "trigger libs" on Twitter.

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You should be studied like a zoo animal

How anyone willingly listens to that voice is just beyond me.

Holy fucking shit I’ve never heard his voice before

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He’s been on Rogan a few times. He can be quite charming.