Ben Shapiro Reveals He Spoke With Joe Rogan About His Comments on Ilhan Omar, Jews and Money
Ben Shapiro revealed he had a conversation with Joe Rogan after the comedian pushed an anti-Semitic trope in defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
On Saturday’s edition of The Joe Rogan Experience, the Spotify host said it was “ridiculous” that the congresswoman was accused of anti-Semitism for her comments about the U.S. supporting Israel.
“She’s talking about money,” Rogan said. “That’s not an anti-Semitic comment, I don’t think that is,” he continued. “The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous. That’s like saying Italians aren’t into pizza. It’s fucking stupid.”
On the Thursday edition of The Ben Shapiro Show the Daily Wire founder addressed the comments, and said he spoke with Rogan about them directly.
Responding to a caller who asked about the difference between jokes and true anti-Semitism, Shapiro said: “So I think jokes are different than it — than, you know, actual honest observations. I did talk with Joe a little bit about this yesterday and he was saying what I sort of suggested he was saying yesterday, which is ‘Everybody likes money and Jews are good with it.'”
“That is a very different thing than I think how it came out on the air when Joe was talking about it,” Shapiro said. “I will say that there is a difference between making stereotypical comments and having a stereotypical worldview.”
Shapiro argued that there is a difference between individual comments and having an anti-Semitic worldview informed by those kinds of beliefs.
“When you talk about full damaging racism or anti-Semitism, it is actions that are tied to a full-scale worldview that are truly damaging,” Shapiro explained. “Now, there can be prominent people who say things that then tie into that worldview or give credence to that worldview unintentionally by saying things. And that’s a problem. But the bigger problem is the worldview itself.”
“So to take an example, if you make a stereotypical comment about Black people in a joke to a friend, is that good? No, it’s not good. It’s ugly and it’s bad and you shouldn’t do it. Does that make you a racist for the rest of your life? No. It means you did a bad thing. It means you said a bad, racist thing,” Shapiro said.
“Does it mean that you even buy into a full scale racist worldview? No! And I think we’ve lost all nuance in this discussion. It’s true of anti-Semitism too. If somebody makes a Jewish joke, is that the same thing as somebody buying into a broad scale program with regard to Jewish conspiracy theory?” he asked.
Watch above via The Ben Shapiro Show.
