Alexis Bakken
Ben Shapiro spoke for 15 minutes in Shannon Hall before taking questions.
Ahead of Ben Shapiro’s appearance at UW-Madison’s Memorial Union, Harrison Wells, chairperson of the campus chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, said the goal of inviting the conservative political pundit to campus was to encourage discussion among people who disagree. So much so that the nonpartisan conservative group planned to allow people who might disagree with Shapiro to move to the front of the Q&A line.
“We just want people to experience a different viewpoint,” Wells said in an interview. “We want people right, left, center. We could care less what your political opinions are. We want you at our event.”
And in fact the majority who queued up to ask questions of Shapiro challenged him on different fronts. The audience, however, was decidedly pro-Shapiro, giving him a standing ovation when he entered Shannon Hall.
Shapiro, founder and editor of The Daily Wire, and the host of The Ben Shapiro Show, one of the fastest growing conservative podcasts, got straight to the point of his talk, titled “Stop Being Apologetic About the Superiority of Western Values,” which promised to cover the importance of free speech on campus, especially in light of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Your civilization is better than Hamas and it is better than those people who sympathize with Hamas,” Shapiro told the crowd. “You should not be shy about that.”
Shapiro, who is vocal about his Jewish identity, criticized the university’s response to the violence in Israel. He said that while the university has condemned other forms of hatred, it has said nothing to condemn Hamas’ attack on Israel, arguing that a statement from Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin was not sufficient. Shapiro criticized the statement for acknowledging that both Israelis and Palestinians were suffering.
Shapiro referenced his last appearance at UW-Madison, in 2016, when protesters interrupted his speech and he responded by writing “morons” on the chalkboard and holding up his middle finger. This time, though, there were no interruptions.
After less than 15 minutes of remarks, Shapiro opened up the floor to questions from the audience — and the line for questions was long.
One audience member began to ask about rumors that some of the images circulating of innocent people suffering during the Israeli-Palestine conflict are AI generated. The person asking the question did not have the opportunity to clarify the content of these images before Shapiro cut him off, calling him “unbelievably stupid.”
“This does not appear to be a highly intelligent specimen,” Shapiro said.
One man asked where Israeli-Palestinian relations would be if Hamas were totally eliminated. Shapiro argued that the Palestinian government would still be targeting Jews. “They are murdering anyone they can find. They're literally shooting people on the road from North Africa to South Africa right now,” Shapiro said, offering no details or proof.
One audience member asked Shapiro how “affirming transgender identity is a threat to biology?”
“To paraphrase my friend, Matt Walsh, I'm gonna need you to explain what a woman is without reference to the word,” Shapiro responded. Walsh is a conservative commentator and anti-trans activist who spoke at UW-Madison in October 2022.
When asked whether anti-drag laws threaten freedom of speech, Shapiro said he did not believe in freedom of expression, but freedom of political speech.
Before the event, the UW Madison Young Democratic Socialists of America and the Trans Resistance Action Committee organized a protest against Shapiro. Tasha, one of the protestors, said Shapiro’s presence on campus was offensive to Palestinian students who are calling for a ceasefire.
“I do think it's a little bit lame that UW is always in support of these speakers that are directly putting down their students, the students of color, trans students and Palestinian students,” Tasha said. “It's frankly embarrassing that they keep supporting these speakers.”
Shapiro was invited to campus by Young Americans for Freedom at UW-Madison, the Tommy G. Thompson Center for Public Leadership, Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy, and the College Republicans of UW-Madison.
During his talk, Shapiro pushed back against the alliance between Palestinian students and LGBTQ+ students. “Thus, we see the bizarre spectacle of queers for Palestine, people with [LGBTQ+] divided by certain flags, marching alongside those with Palestinian flags, who would quickly murder them if they gained power over them.”
There were also a few lighthearted questions about Shapiro’s role as the seven dwarfs in Snow White, after a satirical article by The Babylon Bee, and one question about what motivates him in his career. “What I try to do every day is to bring as much truth as I can to an audience even when they don't like it,” Shapiro said.
When asked who he would support for the presidential candidate in 2024, Shapiro said he would support Ron DeSantis, because he said the Florida governor has the ability to govern.
One person asked why anyone should vote in 2024 given the current slate of candidates. “Both parties seem intent on nominating geriatric people,” Shapiro responded. “I could not be less satisfied with the candidates that are being presented to the American public.”
Shapiro said it’s still important who you vote for, and he won’t be sitting out the election. He called America “an amazing place,” and “blessed by God,” citing country’s wealth and lack of a “serious existential threat” to the nation.
He concluded as he began, arguing that people need to proclaim the “greatness of the West,” and reject support for Hamas: “Our civilization has no duty to welcome you in or support you if you support Hamas.”
