The Weasel And The Lion

A reader asked a while back, why do I dislike Ben Shapiro so much? After all, we're on the same side, right? Indeed, we both believe that liberals are an unhinged secular religion, but that is not so important. So he notices the obvious! Good for him, but it hardly merits praise. The truth is that I could not be on Shapiro's side if I wanted to, because his side has room for only one. He does not understand fidelity, only self-promotion. He gains support by calling out the left for using terms like racist as political weapons, but then piles on anytime there's a good virtual lynching about. Often, he initially sides with the left and then scurries back to safety whenever necessary. It is the strategy of a weasel, not a man.

Consider this little performance he gave yesterday.

And also:

Who exactly are these Judeo-Christians? Was it Louis VII, the French King who attended the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the great church? Let's see.

LOUIS VII (called the Young), king of France from 1137 to 1180. In 1144, Louis banished from the kingdom those Jews who had been converted to Christianity and had later returned to Judaism. In 1146, Louis authorized the Jews to return to Sens, from where they had been expelled. During the preparations for the Second Crusade, of which Louis became one of the principal leaders, Peter the Venerable of Cluny wrote to the king advising him to confiscate the possessions of the Jews; however, Louis followed the more tolerant counsel of Bernard of Clairvaux, who suggested that only the interest on the debts that Crusaders owed to Jewish moneylenders should be canceled.

Hmm, doesn't sound like a Judeo-Christian to me. What about Shapiro, is he one? Not likely, since he saw the Notre Dame tragedy as a great opportunity to make snarky jabs at the president. Remember, Shapiro recoils from this kind of controversy, as seen by his retraction in the face of opposition. His instincts are to find the stance where he can get support from both the left and the right by being a reasonable moderate. So how did he misstep so badly on this one? It's because he feels little to nothing at all for the destruction of the cherished cathedral. When I first saw those images of the inferno, it was gut-wrenching. The normal Westerner is naturally saddened, pained, and angered at the event. Shapiro feels none of that.

Trump is not an articulate man, but his tweet falls right into his pattern of behavior. He is a leader, a natural alpha. In the case of disaster, his instincts would be to quiz his subordinates on the possible approaches, and then take bold, decisive action. He may have little technical understanding of firefighting or medieval construction, but he knows how to be a decider. He was advising French leaders to consider all bold possibilities and be quick, or risk losing their irreplaceable cathedral. Such times require men of action.

Shapiro is a weasel of words. His entire existence is to say the right words to increase his own status. That's all he does, and all he knows how to do. He likes to have conversations on the conversations he'll have about future conversations. It's words, words, words. So when he saw Trump hit an off note with "flying water tankers," he just couldn't help but lay on the snark. This word master just can't believe that the elected president is so bad at words, but Ben has no grasp of the reality of the situation. The president was giving a quick alpha tutorial in disaster management. Assess all the options (even the wild ones), make a firm decision, and act fast. And Shapiro missed that his own supporters mainly are not Judeo-Christians, but Christians who were in agony over the event.

Trump and Shapiro both tend to be self-interested and self-promoting. The difference is that Trump instinctively understands us and will take action to help if he can. Shapiro will not. Hopefully people are realizing that we're a lot more isolated than we'd like to believe. (I predict that the haunting imagery of the collapsing cathedral will have a significant, long-term impact on the collective conscience of the West.) Conservative word weasels are not on our side. They will not fight for us or with us. You'll never find yourself in a foxhole with Shapiro, defending so-called Judeo-Christian values. You can only count on him to be always out there, saying his words.