Video summary
Ben Shapiro expresses strong approval of Elon Musk's takeover of X, praising his decision to clear out previous staff and increase transparency on the platform. He argues that this approach was necessary to remove foreign interference, specifically citing Russian accounts gaining prominence under prior management. Unlike YouTube, where users often face shadowbanning without explanation or recourse from low-level employees in San Jose, Musk is described as personally responsive; if a user receives an unjust ban, they can appeal directly via tweet and receive immediate relief. Shapiro finds this direct accountability charming but notes that while not every action by Musk is meticulously thought out, his generalized worldview effectively counters the "woke redistributionist left" he associates with Kamala Harris. He contrasts this favorably against the previous regime under Jack Dorsey, which relied on behind-the-scenes levers to silence speech without public justification. The discussion also shifts to Mark Zuckerberg's evolution from a tech idealist who once championed free speech at Georgetown in 2019 to a figure more aligned with corporate caution following government pressure during the BLM and COVID eras. Shapiro criticizes Facebook's decision around 2020 to shut down news distribution, arguing that this move damaged American public discourse by removing a platform where real people interacted based on actual relationships rather than curated interests like Instagram or Twitter. He highlights that while other platforms have seen significant reach declines for creators due to algorithmic changes affecting all sides of the political spectrum, Facebook's specific removal of news content has been particularly detrimental to businesses and national conversation alike. Shapiro asserts that society may have passed "Peak Woke," attributing this shift to economic realities where corporations realized diversity initiatives were no longer profitable during tighter financial belts. He suggests that while some corporate DEI officers are being cut, the underlying class dynamics remain potent. The speaker identifies a growing divide between what he terms "Lions"—individuals who want to produce and defend society—and "Scavengers," those living off the spoils of innovation by tearing down productive structures out of jealousy or resentment. He connects this sentiment to biblical archetypes like Cain and Abel, noting that while racial and gender conflicts may be waning as people realize they do not need to be at war with one another, economic class divides and attacks on traditional family units persist because alienated individuals feel their failures are the fault of a successful society. Looking toward future challenges, Shapiro distinguishes between issues related to identity politics, which he believes might have peaked regarding gender roles in America but will likely continue elsewhere globally due to systemic exploitation narratives. He warns that while specific cultural battles over race and sex may be subsiding, deeper class-based resentments are resurfacing as a primary source of conflict. This "Great Divide" is expected to manifest not just economically but socially, with the left maintaining its focus on these class grievances despite America's historical mobility where individuals can rise from poverty to wealth. Ultimately, Shapiro concludes that while some cultural wars may be over, new conflicts rooted in economic inequality and social alienation are inevitable and will require serious attention rather than simple reactionary montages against past "crazy stories."
Read the full video transcript
what do you make of Elon and his recent
injection into public life uh so I think
that Elon taking over X has been
excellent I think that him opening up
the gates has been really good I think
that obviously there are safety
mechanisms that need to be put in place
I think that one of the things he did is
he sort of nuked the entire staff when
he came in which was necessary and good
that also allowed obviously a lot of uh
stuff that I don't think Elon would want
on there uh on the platform or elevated
on the platform including probably some
foreign interference from the Russians
for examp you see some accounts that
that obviously have have risen to
prominence because of being jogged by
outside forces pretty clearly and
obviously and I think Elon wants to to
not have that happen I think he wants to
crack down on that again I think that
Elon he's somebody who who always shoots
from the hip he's very honest about what
he thinks which means that he will
actually take things down right he'll
put something up he'll realize he
doesn't like what he put up and then
he'll take it down he he's done this
many many times which I actually find
kind of charming one of the things that
I that I like about what he is doing is
also he's very transparent about what
he's doing like Ultra transparent so if
you get a video shadowbanned on YouTube
you have no idea why it was shadowbanned
it takes them three months to get back
to you you got a yellow flag for some
unspecified reason it was a low level
staffer in San Jose who decided that you
ought to be that you ought to be
downgraded and suddenly your traffic
gets nailed for a month Elon if you get
banned you'll have one of your friends
like tweet to Elon directly and Elon
will be like yeah I don't see why they
did that and they'll just unban you like
there there's something Charming about
that like You' hope that there are
systems that are put in place but what
he's trying to do I think is good do I
think that every position that Elon is
articulating is well thought out no I
don't think that Elon is giving it that
much thought sometimes I think that he
he is he has a generalized worldview
that does not line up with the kind of
woke redistributionist left that he
thinks KLA Harris represents does that
mean that every tweet is being you know
run through a rigorous fact check
machine or is he just Ming he's just
meing I mean that the truth is Elon is
using Twitter the way we all used to use
Twitter in like 2010 okay I remember
when Twitter was fun before it became a
show and is there a risk of doing
that at the scale that he's at um is
there an obligation that comes with
platform size I mean I I I do think that
that you know listen do I wish that he
would not tweet some of the things he
tweets sure does he also get community
noted on his own site he does and he
removes stuff so yeah people come as a
package I think overwhelmingly Elon is
good uh and if I have a choice between
that and sort of the prior regime which
was Jack dorsy in the back room with a
bunch of levers telling people they
couldn't say you know he or she then I
would I'd much prefer Elon system it
seems like Jack dorsy increasingly is
coming out as sort of a pro Free Speech
position whether that's red conning or
whatever I'm not too sure uh Mark
Zuckerberg has gone from sort of like
nerd to Chad this Arc of him also uh
what do you is there some underlying
some is this just throwing Up's going I
think a lot of the tech Bros feel
correctly that they were targeted by the
government in the aftermath of 2016 so
after Trump won but remember before 2016
social media was going to save all of us
before 2016 Twitter was a good Facebook
was a good all these places were great
and then Hillary lost and the left
because of that mythical you know story
that we told earlier they could not
believe that Hillary lost so there had
to be another reason that she lost it
couldn't be that she was a terrible
candidate who ran a campaign it had
to be that she was jobbed by the
Russians in Facebook and so all the
pressure was brought to bear on social
media had Diane Feinstein calling
Zuckerberg in front of Congress and
saying if you don't regulate yourself
we're going to regulate you and I think
that Zuckerberg and a lot of these other
social media heads after expressing
support for free speech I mean Zuck did
a speech in 2019 that was really good
about at Georgetown about free speech
like really good playing participate on
my show and then by 2020 because of all
of the government pressure around BLM
and covid and all of that he basically
shut off news on Facebook almost
entirely and I think that's not been
salutory for the American public
discourse I think that I think actually
the loss of Facebook in terms of news
distribution has been really bad uh for
forget about for businesses like mine
which you know obviously this is self-
serving i' would love to be able to
distribute more news on Facebook but I I
think that it's been bad for the
national discourse cuz Facebook was kind
of Normy Central right Facebook is like
your grandma was on Facebook and
everybody on Facebook has a name and has
a picture and they're actual humans and
so you had and also had a broader
panoply of humanity and when you shut it
down on Facebook those the people who
are politically active don't go away
they just go to Reddit or forchan well
interestingly with Facebook it's the
only social media that still exists
where you are only connected to people
who you actually know right you know on
Instagram you follow people that you
like their music or you like their dog
or whatever on Twitter you follow people
that you don't know that maybe just
think have interesting takes or takes
that you hate but on Facebook apart from
the fan pages side most of the other
people that you're connected with are
people who you actually know from your
own life and there's still yet to be a
replacement for that for a social
network I totally agree and I think that
you know because of that there's a
natural kind of social fabric that
exists more at Facebook than some of
these other social media sites I also
think that you know listen again self-
serving I have a lot of followers on
Facebook and it's not a good thing that
all the people who follow me have just
seen my content disappear over the
course of the last four years like if
you click follow on a thing you should
be able to see the updates when when
they when they your reach has declined
90% well 90% since 20 are you aware if
that's the same on all sides of the
political line so I think it is I mean I
as far as I'm aware targeting that's I
I'm not aware that it's that it's Target
it maybe targeted us I mean we've had
some intimations that perhaps but again
I don't want to you know get into
conspiracy originally that was a big
part of the growth Loop of DW right 100%
yep yep Facebook was a huge part of that
and we've had to come up with creative
workaround and sort of the nature of
business in 2019 what is the uh thrust
of platform now YouTube uh well I mean
actually we're more and more directing
people to our home platform right we
have more people who are watching on app
we have a lot of people our subscribers
generally tend to watch we have a
million paid subscribers so we tend to
have you know a lot of those people
watching on app um and those numbers
don't even get attributed to our
advertisers we have hundreds of
thousands of people who watch my show on
app and surely that's without mid roll
ads though uh that meaning that the
embedded ads right yeah right they're no
they're no they're no like YouTube ads
or anything but like the the they're
embedded ad still in on the yeah uh uh
actually I don't believe so I think but
for
subscribers they watch ad fre
interesting so so at some point you know
we could see you know maybe there'll be
a lower TI like Netflix it'll be like a
lower tier and you want exactly you get
exposed to a few ads from viral yeah do
you think that we've passed Peak woke um
yes uh I do think that we've passed Peak
woke I think that corporations have
decided that it's not profitable I think
that booming economies that are inflated
have a lot of money to expend and you
can experiment on a bunch of stupid
and so I think that a lot of
people were like we can do woke we can
do Dei we can do all of it and look our
bottom line keeps growing and that's
probably because of Dei and then it
turns out that you know when you got to
tighten the belt a little bit the first
person to go is your diversity equity
and inclusion officer and so I think
that there's some of that in the
corporate world uh the right obviously
has gotten much more mobilized people
like Chris rufo and um Robbie starbu
been doing good job sort of mobilizing
people against this sort of stuff at
their corporations and and from you know
various businesses
all that I think is good and frankly I
think that 2020 was so exhausting for
everybody like so exhausting I think
people don't even recognize that we're
still exhausted from 2020 like it's 2024
and we're all like we've all blocked out
of our memories how bad 2020 was 2020
was horrible I mean between between BLM
and and and Co it was a terrible year
for a huge number of people real onew
punch oh my God it was it was it was I
mean it drove us from California and and
so like the I think for a lot of people
we're still living in the aftermath of
that and we're like we don't want to
remember anything that has to do with it
so if you're going to tell me about like
how America's racist and horrible like I
just don't want to hear it and by the
way you're seeing K smartly avoid this
right like this is the one smart part of
her campaign is that she'll get asked
about race and she'll try and brush it
away in a way that Obama certainly would
not have in in 2012 I imagine that even
for people who were were and still are
in support of everything that happened
during 2020 there's still this lingering
fatigue of that it again I think that
the American people long for stability
and normaly and that's why I think you
see a lot of people like my family that
moved from a blue state that did not
feel like stable or normal to Florida
where it does feel pretty stable and
pretty normal are you worried you know
DW and your platform have been built on
lots of things but one of them has been
in response to crazy stories from the
left if we've passed Peak woke that
creates both a vacuum of stuff to react
to and also less of a revolutionary
guard feel if more people agree that it
is crazy what you're doing is that
something that people everyone's
cognizant of that Matt Walsh can't just
do a like his Tik Tok reacts Montage if
there's less of that to react to so I
think it'll be a different thing that
we're reacting to and I think it'll be a
more serious thing that we're reacting
to I think we're past Peak woke but I
don't think that we're past you know
Peak I'm searching for a term for it uh
I would say Peak phonism um like I think
that France fenon the author of
wretchard of the Earth this kind of post
this idea that that there were the
colonially oppressed and then there're
the oppressors the oppressed oppressed
matri that that's not going away I think
the oppressor oppressed Matrix is is
here to stay I think that it was it was
being sort of forced through the prism
of race and sex I think that that prism
is starting to collapse a little bit
because I think that it's so tiring it
turns out that men and women actually I
think don't generally want to be at war
with one another and eventually it turns
out that they kind of like one another
uh and it turns out that you know as as
racially divisive as the past period has
been I think most Americans kind of want
to just be left alone and treat each
other decently um but I do think that
there are class divides there are
um divides in terms of what called res
restim all the the kind of jealousy and
resentment that are going to come to the
four again you're seeing in terms of
foreign policy it's leading to uh I
think the Great Divide that's to come is
between groups that I've called the
Lions and groups I've called the the uh
the Scavengers uh and that's true
economically it's true societally lions
are people who want to produce who want
to defend who want to be part of a
cohesive Society while having individual
freedom to pursue success and then there
are people who just want to tear those
people down and they've been living off
kind of The Spoils of the innovators and
the people who are entrepreneurial and
the people who want to build
and then there are people who just are
happy to just tear away at that and I
don't think that that necessarily lines
up completely right to left I think
there are some people on the right who
are sort of in jealousy and resentment
mode um and I think that you know the
it's it's largely relegate there it's
it's a very big movement on the left
it's always been sort of a class
movement on the left which always fits
weirdly awkwardly in the United States
which is not a class-based society it's
always when whenever people say I'm
fighting for the middle class in America
I always think like who uh and the
reason I say that is because virtually a
huge percentage of the American
population will spend some time in the
middle class right everybody who's rich
was once middle class in the United
States and a huge number of people who
are once poor are now in the middle
class it's it's it's not like Britain in
1890 where like where you were born is
kind of where you stay and if you're
very lucky you enter the merchant class
and you become you know n Reacher or
something it's not like that in the
United States there's always been the
magic of the US is that you can start
off dirt poor and you can finish off
super rich and you know that so I think
that it Maps awkwardly but the innate
kind of jealousy of man the oldest story
that the two oldest stories Adam and Eve
and can and abble uh and can and abble
is the story of humanity always it is
God saying to the person whose sacrifice
was rejected you can learn from the
person whose sacrifice was accepted you
can do better you don't have to do this
and the person who sacrificed was reject
being like or I could kill that guy and
I think that that's that's what you're
seeing that in terms of foreign policy I
think that you're seeing a coalition of
the supposed oppressed who have decided
that if you're a productive Society you
need to be torn to the ground because my
failure is your fault and I think you're
seeing that economically I think that
you're seeing that uh inter ter of in
social policy I think you're seeing in
terms of some of the attacks on the
family because the family is a safe and
secure place and you're seeing people
who feel alienated from family attacking
that in in a fit of peak that that I
think is and I I don't think those
conflicts are going away anytime soon so
for example you're not going to see I
think that we may have hit Peak woke on
like men are women I think that that may
be past it's it's cell by date but have
we hit Peak woke on I'm protesting
America on a college campus Because I
think America is a systemically uh
brutal exploiter of third world peoples
I don't think remotely hit the end of
that I think that's probably likely to
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