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Ben Shapiro: When the Enemy of Your Enemy Is — Your Enemy
National Review ^ | February 22, 2017 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 02/22/2017 10:40:52 AM PST by EveningStar

Ideas and values should matter more than tribal identity...

Unfortunately, many conservatives have embraced this sort of binary thinking: If it angers the Left, it must be virtuous. Undoubtedly, that's a crude shorthand for political thinking. It means you never have to check the ideas of the speaker, you merely have to check how people respond to him.

That's dangerous. It leads to supporting bad policies and bad men. The enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend. Sometimes he's your enemy. Sometimes he's just a dude sitting there minding his own business...

The logic of "if he melts snowflakes, he's one of us" actually hands power to the Left, by allowing leftists to define conservatives' friends. It gets to choose whom we support...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: alwayscruz; benshapiro; binarythinking; bsshapiro; craycray; cruz; cuck; cuckold; davidduke; enemies; identitypolitics; looniebin; nationalreview; nevertrump; ragepit; strawman; talkradio; tribalcruzers; tribalidentity; trump; twistedlogic
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To: Robert DeLong
Unfortunately, many conservatives have embraced this sort of binary thinking: If it angers the Left, it must be virtuous. Undoubtedly, that’s a crude shorthand for political thinking. It means you never have to check the ideas of the speaker, you merely have to check how people respond to him.

[]

It’s not good enough to just be opposed by the Left – you must actually oppose the Left.

We must ask what someone is fighting against, not merely whom. We must ask what tools they’re using — and we must insist they use the truth. Ideas and values matter more than identity. [emphasis in original]

Spot on, and bears posting here for those too lazy to read the column.
21 posted on 02/22/2017 11:21:11 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: EveningStar

I made that comment mostly in jest.

Was just off to the shops and rattled off a quick comment before heading off. I honestly assumed he was writing about his nemesis, Milo.

Having read the article, he makes some decent points - but, this about Milo more so than Trump.

Tells you all you need to know about Shapiro.


22 posted on 02/22/2017 11:21:31 AM PST by Eurotwit (T)
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To: Tao Yin

Shocking, but welcome, news.


23 posted on 02/22/2017 11:23:17 AM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticides, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: EveningStar

A disappointing article from Ben Shapiro.


24 posted on 02/22/2017 11:23:40 AM PST by Fhios
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To: Tao Yin

>Ben is a semi-supporter of Trump. Praise where it’s due. Criticism where it’s warranted. Ben even wore a MAGA hat on his podcast because of Trump’s court pick.

That doesn’t excuse his attempts to destroy Trump and get Hillary elected. Nor does it excuse his behavior with Michelle Fields. The man is a rat.


25 posted on 02/22/2017 11:27:20 AM PST by RedWulf (TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP!)
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To: RedWulf

Him and that goofy Michelle Fields bimbo that Shapiro had the hots for.


26 posted on 02/22/2017 11:28:29 AM PST by Navin Johnson
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
Ben Shapiro is a smart guy who makes some good points. But he also has a tendency to make sweeping generalizations about Trump supporters. I supported Trump but no, I don’t support David Duke. I don’t even support everything Trump wants. He wasn’t my first choice. But I’m pleasantly surprised with what he has been doing since he was elected and I generally support him. If he does something that I don’t agree with, I won’t support it. Just like I didn’t support Bush’s spending binge even thought I supported other things he did. No one is a robot who automatically supports everything and everyone associated with Trump. So all Shapiro is doing with this essay is filling space with a straw man argument.

Most of the Trump supporters I know are mature, thoughtful people like you. However, there are indeed a few who follow Trump with religious fervor. Sadly, I can't agree with the straw man assertion.

27 posted on 02/22/2017 11:28:31 AM PST by EveningStar
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To: 1rudeboy
Spot on, and bears posting here for those too lazy to read the column.

Thanks, but I did read the column. I suggest he follow his own advice. His support for Hillary was what exactly? I take it that she is a closet righ-winger in Ben's deluded mind?

I do not need this snot nosed kid telling me how to think. I was a conservative long before he was a gleam in his dad's eye.

28 posted on 02/22/2017 11:30:41 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Little Ray

Benji Shapiro is the enemy of all if us, a silly little neverTrumper still throwing tantrums. I’d trust Milo over bim, and I do not condone Milo’s comments. But Milo isn’t delusional.


29 posted on 02/22/2017 11:33:22 AM PST by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
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To: Eurotwit

Look, everyone here knows that Ben Shapiro doesn’t care for Trump.

However, his argument could easily apply to Milo, Ann Coulter, and Alex Jones.


30 posted on 02/22/2017 11:34:28 AM PST by EveningStar
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To: Robert DeLong

And you have just provided an example of what Shapiro refers to as, “binary thinking.”


31 posted on 02/22/2017 11:35:44 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Tao Yin

Shapiro said he would always be never Trump. He said Hillary was preferable in the general. He said Trump would lose in a landslide. He said Trump would never appoint a conservative judge. To this day he tweets out mocks of the President.

Shapiro is a liar, an idiot, a fraud, and an enemy of making America great again.


32 posted on 02/22/2017 11:44:14 AM PST by over3Owithabrain
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To: over3Owithabrain

I have also noticed with the timing of the Milo assassination there comes an attempted rise of the never trump globalist faux conservatives.


33 posted on 02/22/2017 11:47:02 AM PST by over3Owithabrain
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To: 1rudeboy

How so? Because I am capable of thinking for myself? Perhaps you need to try it yourself sometime. You are accusing me of acting like a leftist, however, I argue with people on this board when I disagree with their comments. If I were a binary person then I would always tacitly agree with everything anyone on this board said, even when I know that they are very conservative. Nothing is ever black & white. I might agree with a person on one subject and disagree with that same person on another subject, for that very reason. Broad brush strokes are never acceptable to me, because there are always exceptions to the case. I have lived many years and have come to understand this fact.


34 posted on 02/22/2017 11:47:12 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: EveningStar
This is about Milo . . . and about Trump. In Shapiro's mind, the two are one, just as they are in the mind of NYTimes columnist Frank Bruni. One has been destroyed; one is still standing. For now. Watch the so-called conservatives cheer when he is toppled!
35 posted on 02/22/2017 11:51:15 AM PST by madprof98
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To: Robert DeLong
For starters, you think I'm accusing you of being a leftist, when Shapiro speaks of that portion of the Right that is engaging in binary thinking.

In any case, I am merely observing that you appear unwilling to accept Shapiro's point simply on the basis that he supported Hillary. If that is not binary thinking, nothing is.

36 posted on 02/22/2017 11:56:39 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: EveningStar

1) The hair pulling breakdown of the media can be an indication your choice is doing something very right

2) He is attacking the MSM. No other President has ever put them in their place and I relish it

3) There is an effort to rescue ISIS by taking down Assad by the establishment and the left, and DT will have none of it

4)DT has so far, in 30 days, done NOTHING I disagree with. OK, there is one item that I am not sure I support him on, but nothing that makes me steaming mad. He has acted like a conservative.

IF Trump had gone wobbly. Had betrayed us by governing like Bush, then yes, I might agree with Ben.


37 posted on 02/22/2017 12:07:41 PM PST by Sam Gamgee
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To: Tao Yin

I agree with you. No one is perfect, but I find that Shapiro is one of the most brilliant thinkers out there today. His only problem is he is not Christian, which would make him that much more rational, but he can’t see through his dogma (brainwashing).

If he follows the Talmud (tribalism/mysticism), then I have a big problem with his ability to “reason” (be human). The most perfect, “just” ethics system has always been the Chrisitian one and the Ten Commandments. True Christianity is the most inclusive though, created Common Law and the Magna Carta and most diverse cultures, and is the most just, rational religion in the history of man. It is the only appropriate worldview for our Constitution, which embraces Natural Law theory, although Shapiro does understand Natural Law theory at a very high level. It is what makes him, as rational as he is.

Andrew Klaven is right a lot of times and by “right” I mean in line with our Constitution (Natural Law theory). That people make mistakes is an absolute-—but what I like about Trump is his ability to listen to all sides and come up with his own common sense opinion. He will not be “right” all the time and he will make mistakes. His advisors are crucial. His understanding of the lying media is crucial. Truth is necessary for Freedom and “doing the right thing”. Getting “truth” today is difficult, even for President Trump. He has many evil people around him vying for power. His ability to discern the Good from the Evil will be the deciding factor. Wisdom is the ability to discern Good and Evil. (Cicero).

We have had such lies fed to us for over a century and the brilliant philosophy of our Constitution banned (like God) so that so many are just ignorant fools who promote and accept vice as “good” who “think” they know everything. Ignorance is vice and vice will collapse cultures. Truth (God) is needed for a healthy, brilliant country. If Trump realizes it, we will be great again.


38 posted on 02/22/2017 12:13:14 PM PST by savagesusie (When Law ceases to be Just, it ceases to be Law. (Thomas A./Founders/John Marshall)/Nuremberg)
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To: EveningStar; HarleyLady27; V K Lee
Count me in as one of those "religious fervor" Trump supporters. 

None of the Never Trump conservatives could have beat Hillary nor accomplished anywhere near what Trump has accomplished in the last few weeks.

He's firing on all cylinders.  Pleasing the Deplorables, fantastic Cabinet choices, executive orders, attacking the media, meeting world leaders, creating jobs, going after the Deep State.

And I just love the way he uses Twitter to stir up the animals.  Great.

Donald Trump walks on water...


39 posted on 02/22/2017 12:17:05 PM PST by poconopundit
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To: Eurotwit

I think Ben is probably referring to Milo Yiannopoulos.


40 posted on 02/22/2017 12:19:23 PM PST by ConjunctionJunction
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