1 republican vs 25 Kamala Harris voters

[Buck Edwards]

Interesting debate of Ben Shapiro against 25 Kamala Harris supporters. Some of their views didn't make sense. 

 

[thedoorsareopen]

I love this format. But I'm only 3 minutes in and disagreeing with Ben Shapiro so hard, lol.

He frames the discussion about inclusivity as inherently zero-sum, i.e. to raise up so-called "DEI" people (barf), it necessarily comes at the expense of other groups (white men, obviously). I have such a different take on this.

I have a parent who came to the US from a far more racist and homogenous country, where discriminatory attitudes are just considered normal, part of how social taboos regulate their society. Part of the miracle of America is that we have figured out how to accommodate so many different types of people, not just legally, but socially. For example, within our lifetimes, we went from a society where average people held mocking and discriminatory attitudes towards LGBT. And we went from that, to a society that has mainstreamed LGBT (or at least LGB). It turns out, it's totally possible to share company with a gay couple, or a lesbian couple. It's basically the same as spending time socially with a straight couple. Like, how do you treat a man and woman in a relationship? Great, do that, but for gay couples.

This is part of what makes our shared national character so great -- we are able to accommodate vast amounts of difference between people, and make it work. It's not about pushing one group down to lift up a minority, it's not even about accusing some strawman of a big mean racist guy keeping the poor minorities down. Racism and discrimination are inherently unconscious, primal behaviors. It requires a little engagement of the pre-frontal cortex to transcend that, but we've collectively done it before as a nation, with racism, with sexism, with discrimination against the mentally ill, with homophobia, and with the disabled. It turns out, with a little forethought, we are capable of including everyone in the mainstream of our society, not just legally, but socially.

And on the national stage, a black and brown woman in the highest office of the land is going to mean so much for an entire generation of women and black and brown people. That inclusivity really makes a difference in a way someone like Ben Shapiro will never directly experience. Obama becoming president completely changed the way I saw myself as a person, and as a member of American society, in a good way.

But Ben says that a woke academic wants us to push whites down to lift up others, and that simply is not the case. That's not happening. Arguments in good faith are one thing, conservative strawmen laced with dogwhistles are another.

Still, it's engaging to see some face to face debate!