About

Ben Shapiro is an American conservative political commentator and writer. He is a former Breitbart editor and is an editor emeritus of the conservative publication The Daily Wire. Online, he hosts the podcast The Ben Shapiro Show, with new episodes published each weekday..

History

Shapiro was born on January 15th, 1984 in Los Angeles, California and grew up Jewish.^[1] He graduated from the University of California, and Harvard Law School. In 2004, Shapiro published Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, the first of eleven books he has written. After publishing several books, Shapiro became an editor-at-large at Breitbart. After working at Breitbart for about four years, he resigned in March of 2016 following the site's lack of support of Michelle Fields after she accused former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski of sexual assault. He also accused former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon of courting white supremacists into the alt-right. After he resigned from Breitbart and came out against Donald Trump's candidacy, he was targeted by alt-right anti-semites on Twitter who sent him anti-semitic slurs.

In September of 2015, he started The Daily Wire, a conservative blog, where he is editor-in-chief. In August of 2017, Shapiro interviewed James Damore, famous for writing the Google Manifesto, on his show.

Campus Speeches and Protests

Shapiro has spoken at several college campuses across the United States where he presents conservative viewpoints and often decries what he sees as suppression of conservative thought on college campuses. Several of these speeches have caused significant student protests at the universities. Notably, a scheduled speech of his at Cal State LA was heavily protested by students who viewed his viewpoints as hate speech. University president William Covino cancelled the speech three days in advance, which drew counter-protests and threatened lawsuits. The speech was allowed to happen though student protestors attempted to bar anyone from entering and at one point pulled a fire alarm, though Shapiro continued his speech.

Andrew Neil Interview

On May 10th, 2019, BBC aired an interview between Shapiro and conservative english politico Andrew Neil. Neil challenged Shapiro on some of his positions regarding recent trends in American abortion right and brought up prior tweets of Shapiro's. Shapiro, evidently unaware of Neil's political beliefs, accused Neil of being a leftist and playing "gotcha journalism." “It seems to me," said Shapiro," that simply going through and finding lone things that sound bad out of context and then hitting people with them is a way for you to make a quick buck on BBC off the fact that I’m popular and no one has ever heard of you.” He eventually abruptly ended the interview.

Prior to the interview's airing, Shapiro tweeted some damage control, saying he apologized and was unfamiliar with Neil (shown below, left). The following day, after the interview aired, he joked Andrew Neil DESTROYS Ben Shapiro! and posted an article about all of his past mistakes.^[2]

Many Twitter users found it ironic that Shapiro had been embarrassed in an interview and a debate when he is known for claiming he embarrasses others in debates. User @JordanUhl joked that Shapiro had been "dunking on a fischer-price hoop" and "the nanosecond BBC raises the rim by a foot he loses his shit," gaining over 320 retweets and 1,800 likes (shown below, left). User @uwebollocks tweeted a picture of a corncob next to Shapiro's apology tweet, referencing the Corn Cobbed meme. The interview was covered by The Daily Beast.^[3]

Related Memes

Wakanda Isn't Real

Wakanda Isn't Real refers to a series of jokes and responses to the popularity of the Marvel superhero film Black Panther. Online, some people have taken issue with the popularity of the film and the fictional country of Wakanda, where the film is set, and respond to these complaints with the phrase "Wakanda isn't real." However, the phrase has also been used to mock that response and perceived hyperbolic response to a fantasy location.

On February 9th, 2018, Shapiro responded to an editorial in the New York Times about Wakanda, the fictional country in the film Black Panther, on Twitter. The purpose of the piece is to discuss the meaning of Wakanda in the context of art and society as it is a fictional African nation that has not been colonized. Ben Shapiro's responded to the article, "Wakanda isn't real." The post (shown below) received more than 3,400 retweets and 13,000 likes.

Search Interest

External References