Ben Shapiro and the Politics of Imagination | Big Joel

In this video, I talk about Ben Shapiro and his reaction to the John Lennon song, "Imagine."

[BigJoel]

Anyhow, here's the footnote. There is no doubt that regardless of what you think of private property, property law is an innovation that happened in many societies (though clearly not the modern idea of private property as a right that the government has no grounds to violate, as Ben seems to suggest occurred at the very beginning of civilization). And if Shapiro had simply said that, there would be no problem. *Neither what I said in this footnote nor what I said in the video amounts to an argument for or against Lennon’s perspective on possessions.* But it’s safe to say that civilization did not wait for the “discovery” of property to get started, and it certainly did not occur only in the West. After all, it seems far more likely that property law would be created as a response to the surpluses of emerging civilizations, not the other way around. And to say “property law is something that emerged across many civilizations because it’s one reasonable result of societies having surplus resources” is a radically different, less ridiculous, and less persuasive claim than “we would all be nomads if some dude thousands of years ago hadn’t thought about property” is.

[kevinroth]

"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again."

Ben Shapiro: "Okay, first off, darkness isn't sentient. By definition, darkness is the absence of light. He is literally saying that he wants to have a conversation with nothing here. You know who else talks to nothing? Crazy people."

[heathermasonfan]

Ironic that John Lennon said "imagine no possessions", yet he then proceeded to own Ben Shapiro

[alaiterg]

“It is literally impossible for everybody to be king fu fighting”

[mr_sanchez]

"Imagine people don't care about their kids future. What a world would that be?"
*proceeds to deny climate change and to discriminate Muslims and Trans Kids*
Yeah Ben, IMAGINE.

[Lil_Albino]

Ben Shapiro is the kid to say “gun beats everything” in rock paper sizers.

[ThreeArrows]

Ben Shapiro trashing "Imagine" by taking every line literally sounds like something someone would do as a parody

[keanuxu]

Ben: “The people shouting ‘shame’ are the bad guys.”

Me: they are the poor people she neglected…

[oxymoron]

"The idea of owning what you produce..." - Ben Shapiro, literally describing a facet of Communism while also trying to debunk the ideology of Communism.

[BrokenCurtain]

Ben Shapiro: how to argue with a dead man and still lose.

[grannydearest]

Imagine being in an argument with a dead man and losing

[lynnclaywood]

That part where Ben Shapiro keeps musically interjecting his objections to the lyrics while they play... That's gold. It sounds like it could be it's own song in a musical, with the antagonist desperately trying to undermine the protagonist.

[killerbug]

incredibly ironic, ben shapiro is widely known as the guy that says "hypothetically" before going on wild rants, yet he is unable to understand imagine's hypotheticals.

[da_pikmin_coder]

John Lennon: "Let's *pretend* for a moment that everything we do that causes our own suffering is gone instantly."
Ben Shapiro: "That's unrealistic."

[finnianday]

Ben Shapiro's the type of kid who said "No we can't" to the Bob the Builder theme song

[jeffreycarman]

The juxtaposition of Shapiro and Lennon couldn’t be more stark. Shapiro came from a very wealthy Hollywood elite family and originally wanted to follow in his parent’s footsteps in Hollywood, but after his career in Hollywood never materialized, he has been relegated to doing niche social commentary in the right-wing media bubble. Contrast this with Lennon, who came from a working class family and on 100% his own merits rose to fame and has made an impact on music has endured for half a century after his death and who’s influence will, no doubt, be felt until the end of human civilization.

[theafterparty]

i genuinely come back to this video once every six months to hear ben shapiro snark "god this is so childish" right before lennon sings "you may say im a dreamer but im not the only one". poetic and healing.

[DNorbs]

Shapiro: "This is so childish. Why can't he write an adult song about free market economics, private property rights, and the influence of Judeo Christian thought on the development of Western Civilization?"

[coolbeans]

Ben: liberals are so sensitive
Also Ben: rages about a John Lennon song

[Vanilla.coke]

It's very telling that Ben instantlyconflates "living for today" with hedonism and then goes to say that that would lead to screwing everything in sight and killing all your enemies. Like, it feels like he just shared his own personal desires