Violence is the Last Stop for Democrats

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Violence is the Last Stop for Democrats"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone
• Host/Author: Sasha Stone
• Episode: Violence is the Last Stop for Democrats
• Release Date: July 10, 2025
• Description: Essays on politics and culture from Sasha Stone's Substack. A former Democrat and Leftist who escaped the bubble to understand the other side of the country and critically examine the left.

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1. Introduction to Rising Political Violence

The episode opens with Sasha Stone discussing the escalating violence associated with the Democratic Party. Stone introduces the central question: "Violence is the last stop for Democrats. Was it a resistance or an ongoing insurrection?" He references the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione, a figure now idolized by the left, highlighting a shift towards political violence.

Notable Quote:

"Violence is in the air by politicians who now want protesters to get messy, to get bloody... turn the public against Donald Trump."
(00:00) — Sasha Stone

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2. The Catalytic Role of Luigi Mangione

Stone and co-host Ben Shapiro delve into the implications of Mangione's assassination. They explore how this act became a rallying point for leftist populism, with Shapiro suggesting that the incident was "a little too convenient" for the Democratic agenda.

Notable Quote:

"The Mangione case as a platform for creating this leftist populist fervor... it became the platform for this sudden renewed populism."
(02:02) — Ben Shapiro

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3. Media's Influence and Democrat Rhetoric

The discussion shifts to the media's role in perpetuating violent rhetoric. Stone cites a New York Post story linking Democrats to an "assassination culture," supported by a study showing significant support for violent actions against figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Notable Quote:

"Our own base is telling us that what we're doing is not good enough... there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public."
(00:41) — Ben Shapiro

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4. Public Opinion vs. Democratic Actions

Stone contrasts public opinion polls favoring deportation of illegal immigrants with the Democratic Party's anti-immigration rhetoric. Despite a majority supporting strict immigration controls, Democrats advocate for open borders and sanctuary cities, which Stone argues is counter to public sentiment.

Notable Quote:

"Most Americans are in favor of deporting illegal immigrants... These are very clear indication that a majority of Americans... want to deport all immigrants who are here illegally."
(08:15) — Ben Shapiro

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5. Escalation of Political Violence

The hosts discuss specific incidents of violence at political rallies, particularly targeting ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) operations. They argue that Democratic rhetoric dehumanizes ICE agents, inciting public violence against them.

Notable Quote:

"The left has been claiming for a very long time... you are not responsible for that violence."
(08:59) — Ben Shapiro

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6. Historical Parallels and Political Analysis

Shapiro draws parallels between current political dynamics and historical events like the Civil War and the civil rights movement. He suggests that contemporary Democratic actions mirror these tumultuous periods, leading to societal division and instability.

Notable Quote:

"We have a cancer when a small cluster of cells invade and overcome the larger healthy host... Trump represents the immuno response of the normal healthy cells of our polity."
(17:13) — Ben Shapiro

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7. Personal Reflections and Predictions

Sasha Stone shares personal experiences of alienation from the Democratic Party, recounting lost friendships and relationships due to the party's increasing embrace of violence and intolerance. He reflects on historical events like the Kent State shootings to illustrate how violence can backfire politically.

Notable Quote:

"The party of hate. I've lost so many friends... They have become defined by that collective hatred, that poisonous intolerance."
(43:40) — Sasha Stone

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8. The Future of American Politics

Concluding the episode, Stone and Shapiro discuss the potential future trajectory of American politics. They express skepticism about the Democrats' strategies and predict continued polarization, suggesting that violence may further erode Democratic support.

Notable Quote:

"Our story. We'd solved America's problems... When Trump happened to us rather than the people voted for him."
(37:37) — Sasha Stone

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Conclusion

The episode portrays a grim view of the current Democratic Party, emphasizing a shift towards violent rhetoric and actions that conflict with public opinion. Through a combination of personal anecdotes, historical analysis, and media critique, Sasha Stone and Ben Shapiro argue that the Democratic embrace of violence undermines their political goals and alienates the broader American populace.

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For More Insights: Visit Sasha Stone's Substack at sashastone.substack.com for more essays on politics and culture.

Transcript

[Sacha Stone]

Hi, this is free thinking through the fourth turning. My name is Sacha Stone. Violence is the last stop for Democrats. Was it a resistance or an ongoing insurrection? Violence is in the air after Luigi Mangione assassinated CEO Brian Thompson and became a hero of the left. It's in the air by politicians who now want protesters to get messy, to get bloody, all for a necessary photo op they believe will finally at long last, turn the public against Donald Trump. From Tony Kanette of Daily Signal, Axios.

[Ben Shapiro]

Released this report after there was already a shooting on Saturday that involved ICE officials. This is what Axios reported, quote, what we're hearing. The grassroots of the Democrat Party once more, some of them have suggested what we really need to do is be willing to get shot when visiting ICE facilities or federal agencies. A thorough House Democrat told Axios. That is an official. A Democrat official said, and I quote, our own base is telling us that what we're doing is not good enough. Parenthetical, that there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public. End quote.

[Sacha Stone]

Boy, that escalated quickly.

[Ben Shapiro]

First of all, there's a really important question to ask. Where is this coming from?

[Sacha Stone]

Did Axios condemn this?

[Ben Shapiro]

Did Axios talk to the Department of Homeland Security about the rising number of threats and possible ways to address it? Nope. And Democrat officials are the answer to where is this coming from? This is not a conspiracy theory. This is not random conjecture. The Democrats in the House and the Senate are directly responsible for the rise in political rhetoric and violence.

[Sacha Stone]

Mangione, as it turns out, was a useful weapon in this war. Back In December of 2024, novelist and co host of America this Week, Walter Kern foresaw the connection and predicted the rise of a young, charismatic populist. Sound familiar?

[Ben Shapiro]

The bulwark. The Crystal magazine put up this tweet. What unites Elon Musk and the United Healthcare CEO is their belief that laws do not apply to them. There's a class warfare populism out there waiting for someone to harness it. There's a populism out there that is waiting to be harnessed. No, it was harnessed. It just. Just harnessed by Donald Trump. Right. It wasn't the left wing sort of populism, but across the board, you're seeing over and over that this populist idea, which was Hitlerian a few months ago, is now the left's very best idea. Suddenly we want our kind of populism. We're going to take out, you know, we're going to take out the neoliberals and and put in AOC and Bernie and so on and start talking class warfare. And I see the Mangione case as a, as a platform for creating this leftist populist fervor. And this is a hard pivot. And, and, you know, I don't think many people appreciated my suggestion that the Luigi Mangione murder was just a little too convenient at the right time. What I meant by that, I leave open for us to discover in the future, but that it became the platform for this sudden renewed populism and this bipartisan bulwark. Plus, Bernie, hostility towards CEOs is wow. And, and the thing is, they're not really twisting the murder. It was, it was custom made for this rhetoric. You know, he, he laid it out on his bullets. Right?

[Sacha Stone]

Yeah.

[Ben Shapiro]

They, they must be incredibly grateful to the great God of politics that it presented them this perfect Robin Hood basis for the, for the pivot they wanted to make anyway.

[Sacha Stone]

Kern saw something much bigger. He could see the connection between what Mangione represented to the left and the gathering storm that would ultimately find its way towards Zorhan Mamdani and the current wave of populist revolutionaries. For podcast listeners, a story from the New York Post. Quote, democrats are forming an assassination culture as Trump rises in power, a new study reveals from April of 2025. And from the story, the NCRI study traces the cultural shift back to the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly by Luigi Mangione in December 2024. What followed, researchers say, was a viral wave of memes that turned Mangione into a folk hero. Quote, trump represents the perfect target for assassination culture. He's powerful, he's rich, and he's provocative. Finkelstein told Fox News Digital. That puts him on the highest shelf for those who glorify political violence. And two graphs showing left of center approves of murdering Elon Musk by 48% and murdering Donald Trump by 55%. And those who say destroying Tesla dealerships is partially acceptable. 57%. And a photo from the New York Times. Luigi before fascists. With Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom in California and mom Donnie in New York vowing to obstruct ice, we can see a culture already defined by political violence rising to new heights. Either to get a photo op that depicts Trump as an authoritarian fascist or to start a standoff with the military, one that could go down in history books. Here is a report from Fox 11. And a massive ice operation shook LA's.

[Ben Shapiro]

MacArthur park this morning.

[Sacha Stone]

Aerial video showing federal agents and. And the National Guard troops, some on horseback, sweeping that park. As helicopters circled overhead, 17 humvees, dozens of agents and 90 guard members descended.

[Ben Shapiro]

On that area, home to thousands of immigrant families.

[Sacha Stone]

Mayor Karen Bass was seen confronting ICE officials and calling for them to leave. Yes, my comment is they need to leave and they need to leave right now. They want to leave because this is unacceptable.

[Ben Shapiro]

We're getting on the car right now.

[Sacha Stone]

And here is a tick tocker. Just saw another creator on here make a really great point, which is white women need to intervene in these ICE rates. We are the ones that need to insert ourselves into in these situations and make it super messy, super dirty, super mean. And I say this with all the compassion in my heart. It's okay to take a hit. If you get hurt. It's like falling off a bike. You're scared, you're stunned. You will be okay. But we need to make serious moves, serious concessions to stand up to these forces. We need to make it as hard as possible, as loud as possible for this to continue to happen. But as with all of the pet causes by the Democrats, this one goes against public opinion, just as their support of biological men playing against women in sports goes against it. Most Americans are in favor of deporting illegal immigrants. Here is Harry Entin on CNN deporting.

[Ben Shapiro]

All immigrants who are here illegally. 55% of the New York Times, Marquette, 64%, CBS News, 57%. ABC News with a slightly different question, 56%. So what you're seeing essentially here is very clear indication that a majority of Americans, in fact, when they're asked this blunt question, which I believe gets at the underlying feelings, do, in fact want to deport all immigrants who are here illegally. There's no arguing with these different numbers because they're all essentially the same across four different pollsters.

[Sacha Stone]

The question now isn't whether there will be violence as ICE continues to find and deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, but how bad the violence will be. What is a cause worth fighting and dying for? Here is Ben Shapiro.

[Ben Shapiro]

Now, again, the left has been claiming for a very long time that if you use rhetoric that is too colorful, if you say things that are borderline, this can lead to, quote, unquote, stochastic terrorism. This is an act of stochastic terrorism that essentially what you're doing is creating a permission structure for terrorism. And as I've said before, unless you are actually excusing or inciting violence, you are not responsible for that violence. With that said, when you raise the temperature, what that means is that there will be people who bubble over doesn't mean that Bernie Sanders is responsible for the Congressional baseball shooter, for example. What it does mean is that when you keep saying over and over and over the Republicans are going to kill your kids when they take away Medicare or some such nonsense, if you say that sort of thing and then somebody goes and shoots a bunch of Republican congresspeople who are playing baseball, you at the very least should consider whether the kinds of language that you used were well calibrated. And this is the problem. The sorts of language that are currently being used with regard to ice, with regard to Border Patrol by the left are extraordinary, extraordinary. And they set up a permission structure that causes people who are unhinged to then take it to the next step. In the same way that if you keep saying that President Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler, at some point someone might take you seriously and go and try to kill Hitler. Well, this is the same sort of thing with Border Patrol agents. Here is just a few examples of members of the high ranking left going after ICE and Border Patrol in language that is completely unhinged. Donald Trump's modern day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons. No chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye.

[Sacha Stone]

I don't know of any police department that routinely wears masks. We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks. It's felt like we're part of a grand experiment.

[Ben Shapiro]

What happens?

[Sacha Stone]

How far will the public tolerate the.

[Ben Shapiro]

Federal government intervening and seizing power from.

[Sacha Stone]

The gut from a governor?

[Ben Shapiro]

The combination of these Gestapo like tactics with the fact that these are non violent, non criminal immigrants doing things the right way.

[Sacha Stone]

I mean, in that last facility, I was not safe from the officers in that facility.

[Ben Shapiro]

But when the nation, when these political factions divided the nation in between slaveholders and slave catchers, when they made everybody with the Fugitive Slave Law, all of us had to, if someone escaped, all of us had to return that particular piece of property to these folk. With ICE running around LA forcing people to make choices, will they protect the, their, their friends, their neighbors, their family members? You know, my dad served in Second World War. He fought the Nazis in Northern Africa, he fought the Nazis on the Italian peninsula. And I think he's looking down right now and he's happy that I'm fighting today's Nazis. Okay, so as you can see, those are a lot of prominent Democratic figures. I mean, there you're talking about tamales from A vice presidential candidate, current governor of Minnesota, Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Representative Dan Goldman of New York, AOC of New York, Eddie Glaud, who's over on msnbc, and a representative named Stephen Lynch. That sort of language is going to have some sort of consequence again. It doesn't mean they're responsible for a person trying to shoot Border Patrol agents. If you keep increasing the temperature and if you keep excusing violence on the other end, which is the other thing that Democrats have been doing for quite a long while here, ranging from the sort of violence we saw during the BLM riots of 2020 to the excusing of the alleged murderous actions of Luigi Mangione on the streets of New York. When you do that sort of stuff over and over and over, you're obviously going to lead to an uptick in violence.

[Sacha Stone]

What they hope the violence will do is shift public opinion back in their favor. But they've never learned the lessons of the past why Trump won in 2016 and why he just won again. Here is Megyn Kelly with The guys from RealClearPolitics, Tom Bevin, Carl Cannon and Andrew Walworth. These missteps, I guess, right now to into a Democratic politics. If you're from a big city, Megan, we talked about this on our show. You've got to, you know, you got to position yourself against, against ice, against the immigration service. You've got to favor open borders, sanctuary cities, all these things. But you're really saying that you don't want the law to be followed. And I, I think it's, it seems to me a dead end for the Democrats.

[Ben Shapiro]

And I don't know why they keep.

[Sacha Stone]

You know, it's like, keep going down that, that cul de sac.

[Ben Shapiro]

I think that the theory of the case for the Democrats right now on this, the only explanation that makes sense for their position, because this is really, this is what Trump ran on. This is what Trump won on. This is one of those sort of 70, 30, 80, 20 issues. But their theory is that the Trump administration will go too far and there will be a reaction against ice, against Tom Homan, and that they will sort of catch that wave. That's the only sort of political explanation for it all. I'm not saying they're right, but I think that if you're looking for an explanation of how the Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, especially progressive Democratic mayors, are taking this position, which seems so out of touch with all American voters, that seems to be at least a plausible explanation.

[Sacha Stone]

For the resistance There is no third option where they realize they're the problem and reverse course. Instead, they double down on everything they've already been doing for the last 10 years, which has only resulted in Trump becoming more powerful. The power of Story the more people believe in a shared story, the stronger the movement. Our story. We'd solved America's problems, maybe the world. Racism, along with every other ism and phobe, was the enemy. Eradicate it. Craft a language that welcomes everyone and we'd be healed. Healed from what? The scars of our 1970s childhoods. Shaped by the reckless me generation, we emerged into the self help era as victims or abusers, our life battered by addiction and trauma. Entire industries sprang up to mend our wounds. We sought salvation in the self help aisles of bookstores, therapy sessions, medications and Oprah's group chat every day at three. Relationships crumbled. Too many men were toxic or narcissistic. We studied attachment theory, embraced cognitive therapy and chased perfection. The perfect parenting, car, words, diet, causes, schools. Our children became extensions of our quest, expected to embody that same flawless ideal. When they fell short, we fed them into the self help machine to mold them into better versions of ourselves, even medicating them to make them more perfect, a practice that would lead us all too easily into gender affirming care, the greatest medical scandal in recent history. What we really needed was a higher purpose, a unifying movement that arrived with Barack Obama, whose hope and change brought us together. To us, he was perfect. And even more than that, he was a perfect reflection of the America we wished we had. By then, thanks to the rise of the Internet, social media and smartphones, we had control and influence over nearly every aspect of American society. Why not use the new frontier of the Internet to remake the America we wanted? Why not build our shining Woketopia on the Hill? And so it was written, and so it was done. We closed ourselves off from the part of America that didn't share our beliefs, and over time, we forgot it even existed. Trump's shocking win marked the moment the dream was punctured and reality flooded in. A revolution by we the normal. Here is mark Halperin from NextUp.

[Ben Shapiro]

I got a note this week from a friend of mine, Scott lives in Minnesota. Scott said this Trump is winning because he leads a movement. As you've pointed out time and again, the appetite for substantive reversal of old order and overreach is akin to a starving man at the Bellagio buffet. For years, the Obama plus left indulged in social pandering to the marginalized so much so they didn't just ignore the normal many, they actively attacked them, denigrating it as if somehow they were wrong and morally corrupt. This is called cancer when a small cluster of cells invade and overcome the larger healthy host. Progressives did nothing to arrest this malignancy as it metastasized from the academy to our corporations, media and other commanding heights. Trump represents the immuno response of the normal healthy cells of our polity, the white blood cells. Reversing this We've become so accustomed to the ascendancy and triumph of the marginal that to feel the swing back toward the majority of us, the proper base set point, feels cruel and abnormal. It is as sickening as chemotherapy on any cancer. Your hair falls out, you vomit. It feels abnormal to arrest and reverse the malignancy that has become our unsustainable new normal. But Scott writes, we cannot continue this social descendants, the progressive glorification of the marginal without simultaneously investing and strengthening the rest of us. That is why Trump wins all the time. We the normal, we the boring, we the backbone muscle and love of this American project, reject progressive determination to end us, to diminish us, to atomize us into a thousand itty bitty cultural and identity components. The factories of this cancer, Harvard, the New York Times, etc. Must be irradiated to end it. We cannot stop this till cancer is gone. This is why Trump wins. He leads the unstoppable momentum of the vast sea of normal people against the forces that would cripple us. We don't have to accept this fate from the left and with Trump we see that we don't have to. All it takes is fearless leadership, Scott writes in conclusion. I'll take the built in corruption and breaking of norms in exchange for it just as surely as I'd sacrifice my hair and accept the nausea if I knew it's what it would take to survive cancer.

[Sacha Stone]

Trump represented everything we believed was wrong with our country. He epitomized all the bad things we complained about. Racism, misogyny, sexual harassment, sexual assault. It wasn't just that he offended our God and our king when he challenged Obama's birthplace. It was that he said whatever he wanted to say. And in our woketopia then and now, that is strictly forbidden. Language must be curated, softened and made more polite, a form of newspeak for the modern age. But the flip side of that was people who were too fragile to accept the truth. Truth in words, truth in politics, truth in comedy, truth in art, truth in science, truth in elections. And if words Are violence if words cause staffers at the New York Times to feel unsafe? If movies like Gone with the Wind need trigger warnings, there would be no surviving Trump and the rise of free speech in a culture that no longer believed in it. But violence turns out to be, for the left, the answer to the fear inside them that they can't control. Like dogs or bears or snakes who lash out when they feel cornered and threatened. A history of violence. What drove the early violence by the left was the commonly held belief that Trump was a racist and his border policies were rooted in the right's desire to rid this country of black and brown people. Thus, when the mobs acted out like they did in 2015 and throughout Trump's first term, it was justified. Racism was the ultimate sin, like being an accused witch in Salem or a communist in 1950s America.

[Ben Shapiro]

None of that. Breaking news overnight. Those violent clashes at Donald Trump's rally in California. You see those protestors there? They attacked Trump supporters just after Trump spoke. And ABC's Tom Yamas was there. He's on the scene now in San Jose. Good morning, Tom. George. This was one of the most violent scenes I have ever witnessed at a Trump rally. At times, it seemed like the police had no control of the situation. People were getting beat up right in front of them. And these were not clashes. These were pure attacks. Trump supporters, men, women, even the elderly, left this building last night and walked right into danger. Oh, my God.

[Sacha Stone]

The Huffington Post published a piece that excuses the violence against Trump supporters. So in the piece, the writer argues that violence is a logical response, and I'm quoting the writer here, to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and Islamophobia that is part of the Trump campaign. The Huffington Post made this statement. Whatever your personal beliefs regarding violent resistance, there is an inherent value in forestalling Trump's normalization. Violent resistance accomplishes this. Prominent Democrats pushed out the idea, which was then echoed and amplified by what Trump would eventually and correctly call fake news. Here are videos from Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Joe Biden. This has never happened to a nominee of a major party. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump was endorsed by the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan. They wrote their endorsement under the slogan of his campaign, Make America Great Again. They said it's about preserving white identity and they've place their faith and hope in him. You've got to ask yourself, do any of us, any of us who believe in our Constitution, who believe in the rule of law, who believe that we are stronger together, who believe that we want to keep moving positively toward the vision of freedom and equality set forth by our founders. Do any of us have a place in Trump's America? It's not just about communities of color. It's about young people. It's about any of us who don't ever want us to go back to a time when you can officially discriminate where people could be intimidated. That is not who America is, and we're not going to let it ever go back to that. Now, sadly, for some reason, Hillary's opponent comes from a different place. I don't know, perhaps living life high up in a tower, in a world of exclusive clubs, measuring success by wins and losses, the number of zeros in your bank account. Perhaps you just develop a different set of values. Maybe with so little exposure to people who are different than you, it becomes easy to take advantage of those who are down on their luck. Folks who play by the rules pay what they owe. Because to you, to you, those folks just aren't very smart and seem somehow less deserving. And if you think this way, then it's easy to see this country as us versus them, and it's easy to dehumanize them, to treat them with contempt, because you don't know them. You can't even see them. Maybe that's why this candidate thinks certain immigrants are criminals instead of folks who work their fingers to the bone to give their kids a better life, to help build the greatest nation on Earth, because he doesn't really know them.

[Ben Shapiro]

Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one started off his campaign, coming down the escalator saying he's going to get rid of those Mexican rapists. He's banned Muslims because they're Muslims.

[Sacha Stone]

He has moved around and made everything.

[Ben Shapiro]

Worse across the board. He says about the poor boys. Last time we were on stage here, he said, I told him to stand down and stand ready. Come on. This guy is a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn.

[Sacha Stone]

President Trump, I'm going to give you 10 seconds to respond, and then I have a follow up.

[Ben Shapiro]

No, he made a reference to Abraham Lincoln.

[Sacha Stone]

Where did that come in?

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, you said you're Abraham Lincoln. No, no. Where did that. No, no, you said. I said, not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I've done for the black community. And I'm saying, I didn't say I'm Abraham Lincoln.

[Sacha Stone]

I said the Democrats loved the violence, as it turned out because they thought that the people would show the rest of America that Trump was bad. They also began to believe that their uprising against Trump was a fusion of both the Civil War and the civil rights movements of the 1960s. I just don't even know why there.

[Ben Shapiro]

Aren'T uprisings all over the country.

[Sacha Stone]

Maybe there will be.

[Ben Shapiro]

People need to start taking to the streets. This is a dictator, you know.

[Sacha Stone]

There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives.

[Ben Shapiro]

Enemies of the state. Show me where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful.

[Sacha Stone]

Do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless.

[Ben Shapiro]

When they go low, be kidding.

[Sacha Stone]

How do you resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck?

[Ben Shapiro]

Biggest terror threat in this country is white men. Most of them radicalized up to the right.

[Sacha Stone]

I thought he should have punched him in the face. I said, even if you lost, he insulted your wife. He came down the escalator and called Mexicans rapists and murders.

[Ben Shapiro]

He said, well, what do you think I should have done?

[Sacha Stone]

So I think you should have punched him in the face, then gotten out of the race. He would have been a hero. I'd like to punch him in the face.

[Ben Shapiro]

I said, if we were in high.

[Sacha Stone]

School, I'd take you behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.

[Ben Shapiro]

Punch some people in the face. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? They're still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump. And that's a fact.

[Sacha Stone]

Look, as his character is stabbed to death. Where is John Wil's booth when you need. By the summer of 2020, they funded and encouraged violence while also downplaying it. Buildings set on fire, businesses destroyed, and an angry mob banging on the fence of the White House were all excused as mostly peaceful protests. However, what I was seeing unfold, which alarmed me enough to start speaking out, was that something was very wrong with the left. And it wasn't until the evergreen stories started coming out that I realized we'd built a fanatical army of not just woke scolds, but a Red Guard like generation who did not believe in limits on imposing their will upon the people. Here is Bret Weinstein testifying before Congress.

[Ben Shapiro]

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to address you. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the day 50 Evergreen students, students that I had never met, disrupted my class, accusing me of racism and demanding my resignation. I tried to reason with them. I felt no fear because I knew that whatever my Failings might be bigotry was not among them. At that moment, I felt sure I could reach them. I also felt a moral obligation to try. That racism squanders human potential and erodes human dignity offends me. I am also well versed in the evolutionary logic that makes racism durable. I should have had no trouble establishing common ground. Their response surprised me. It would take months for me to fully understand what had happened. The protesters had no apparent interest in the very dialogue they seemed to invite. I was even more surprised by the protesters fervor in shouting down my actual students, some of whom had known me for years. The cruelty and derision reserved for students of color who spoke in my defense was particularly troubling, if not discussion. What did they want? I was one of Evergreen's most popular professors. I had Evergreen's version of tenure. Did they really think they could force my resignation based on a meritless accusation? They did think that, and they were right. What I had not counted on was their alliance with Evergreen's new president. Though the protesters openly humiliated him, the president of the college partnered with the mob in private, handing them concession after concession. We know this because the rioters filmed everything and proudly uploaded it.

[Sacha Stone]

Diners were compelled to raise their fists in support of Black Lives Matter. The statues were coming down. Writers, editors, and celebrities were all being canceled and fired. Movies, literature, tv, comedy, architecture, science, even knitting, cooking, and exercising had to be transformed. It was tolerated because of what our culture had become. After eight years of Obama and four years of Trump, the powerful, mostly white elites who run everything felt guilty. So they let it go on. I watched Hollywood devour itself. When the film Green Book won Best Picture, the left exploded. It was a harmless movie about a friendship between a bigot and a black gay man. And that was racist? Yes, because one of the screenwriters was a Trump supporter. Here's a scene from Green Book.

[Ben Shapiro]

We were screwed. Now we ain't. And I just put the Attorney General of the United States in an incredibly awkward position. So what? That's what the guy gets paid for. What else he got to do? That man and his brother are trying to change this country. That's what else he got to do. Now he thinks I'm some kind of calling from some backwoods swamp jail asking to attenuate assault charges. Who does that garbage? That's who. You shouldn't have hit him. I didn't like the way he was treating you, making you stand out in the rain like that. Please. You hit him because of what he called you. I've had to endure that kind of talk my entire life. He should be able to take it for at least one night. What? I can't get mad at that stuff he was saying. Cuz I ain't black. Christ, I'm blacker than you are. Excuse me? You don't know shit about your own people. What they eat, how they talk, how they live. You don't even know who Little Richard is. Oh, so knowing who Little Richard is makes you blacker than me? Oh, Tony, I wish you could hear yourself sometimes. You wouldn't talk so damn much. Bullshit. I know exactly who I am. I'm the guy who lived in the same neighborhood in the Bronx my entire life. Well, my mother, my father, my brother, and now my wife and kids. That's it. That's who I am. I'm the asshole who has to hustle every goddamn day to put food on the table. You, Mr. Big Shot. You live on top of a castle. Traveling around the world, doing concerts for rich people. I live on the streets. You sit on a throne. So, yeah, my world is way more blacker than yours.

[Sacha Stone]

Pull over.

[Ben Shapiro]

What? Pull over. I ain't pulling over. Got the car. Tony. What? What are you doing? Doc. Doc, what the hell are you doing? Doc, get back in your car. You have to live in a castle, Tony. Alone. And rich. White people pay me to play piano for them because it makes them feel cultured. But as soon as I see off that stage, I go right back to being just another to them because that is their true culture. And I suffer that slide alone because I'm not accepted by my own people, because I'm not like them either. So if I'm not black enough, and if I'm not white enough, and if I'm not mad enough and tell each other, what am I?

[Sacha Stone]

The center could not hold. And though Joe Biden was dragged over the finish line in a corrupt election that would finally cause me to leave the Democratic Party, there was no coming back from what the left had become. It was only a matter of time before the empire collapsed. I tried to warn them. Here is a DM exchange between me and Neera Tandon back in August of 2020. Neera Tanden writes, I honestly don't know what's happening, but this tweet sounds like something on Fox News. Biden said looting was bad in June and this week, you saying Democrats don't care about looting is totally amplifying the message of the gop. And I said, I know it sounds like that, Neera, but here's my problem. Democrats are so steeped in denial, they can't read the public anymore. And she writes, I don't really want to fight with you on Twitter, so I'm dming you to be aware that we have an election in 65 days. And I wrote, we appear to have lost connection to reality. And she writes, who is the we here? Biden, Pelosi have all condemned looting and violence. That was August of 2020. And then I predicted the future in October of 2020. I write, I used to think that I'm voting for Biden no matter what, but the Democratic party is headed in the wrong direction. Anira Tandon wrote, is this a hard concept? Oh my God. Okay, I'm unfollowing. You've changed. And I wrote, I understand you will see in 2024 when the GOP takes all three branches. I have changed because we have changed. Hillary was the target in 2016 and it was just as bad then. And she writes, you are looking at an upside down America. I don't know what to say to someone who sees a majority forming against hate and decides this is the time to kick. Defenders of democracy, good luck. The GOP did in fact take all three branches in 2024. But the message was never getting through. They didn't want to hear it then and they do not want to hear it now. So what other option do they have but to try to persuade by force? Vive la resistance. I cringe, looking back on being a resistance fighter, to think we'd convinced ourselves that we were like the French singer in Casablanca who sings loud enough to drown out the Naz la. It's that self righteousness we felt, that entitlement, that moral superiority that would ultimately be our undoing. That Trump happened to us rather than the people voted for him. The fantasies by the wealthiest and most famous among us to viciously attack Trump and pull him from limb to limb seem to know no bounds is fight.

[Ben Shapiro]

In Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box. You get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they're not welcome anymore anywhere.

[Sacha Stone]

Ellen, their idea is, look, non violence hasn't worked and we are going to try to stop this person. Walker, how do you resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck?

[Ben Shapiro]

Other way, other way, other way.

[Sacha Stone]

That's it right there pulling up.

[Ben Shapiro]

Cause I'm throwing that piece of shit against the wal till it sticks. Our democracy is under siege. People need to start taking to the streets. This is a dictator, this is people.

[Sacha Stone]

This is a.

[Ben Shapiro]

We need a revolution. At this point, we will, as per Chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face.

[Sacha Stone]

Spokesperson the mouthpiece for the President of the United States to say, you don't know me. In certain quarters in this nation, that starts a physical fight age look as.

[Ben Shapiro]

His character is stabbed to death.

[Sacha Stone]

And there's no mistaking the Trump connection. Somehow violence has filled in the empty spaces. It's what Walter Kern could see in the reaction to the mangione assassination. This idea that violence was another way to build clout, even to virtue Signal in a narcissistic utopia. Podcast listeners, a headline. Some far left groups have encouraged peaceful protests to turn violent. Experts say unrest in Los Angeles follows a recent pattern. Protests that break out remain mostly peaceful during the day, but at night agitators engage in fiery clashes with police. We believed ourselves to be the chosen people, but because the people didn't want us, didn't love us, didn't want our America, our shining woketopia on the Hill. We blamed them. We blamed their votes, we smeared them. That casual dehumanization did lead to violence and it's likely to get much worse. Here are some tiktokers.

[Ben Shapiro]

The craziest part about the Democratic Party for me is their hate for one individual supersedes their entire purpose of what they're fighting for. Imagine if all the energy that the left puts towards quite literally bullying people that have a different opinion than them. Imagine if all of that energy was put into, I don't know, just trying to get along.

[Sacha Stone]

I think I'm in enemy territory. There's too many American flags for my comfort. He was not shot. He did not win. He is a fascist. What if the mark of the beast is that stupid red hat y' all be wearing? Trump is so dumb for pissing off LA because we don't have jobs like none of us have jobs. We have like Covid level amounts of free time to protest. My dude, he's soaked up. Hey Mag, you're feeling all powerful now, aren't you? You feel like you.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah, daddy baby did us justice.

[Sacha Stone]

You know where our all of our nuclear power is in red states. Bye bye. You elected a 34 time convicted felon and you still dispute that shit? You dispute it? He has graped 26 women. You dispute that? He graped a little girl. You dispute that Even though her testimony is in court documents that have been filed with the state of California. To my friends and family that voted for Trump, you to everyone that voted for Trump. You.

[Ben Shapiro]

I hope you get every goddamn thing.

[Sacha Stone]

That you voted for.

[Ben Shapiro]

Hopefully my family can get the out of this country and not have to see it. Good luck atoning with your God.

[Sacha Stone]

Happy Birthday America. You became everything you were designed not to be. Donald Trump wouldn't be able to get a job at an elementary school and yet y' all elect him to be.

[Ben Shapiro]

The leader of our country.

[Sacha Stone]

I hate maga. I think that if you are a person that supports what this administration is doing within the United States and outside of the United States states, you are a horrible person. I wish we could split this country in two. Just a psa. We wouldn't be here if you had voted for her. I'm curious if you're a minority, do you like hanging out in white spaces? My friends and I were debating this over the weekend and I personally prefer not to vacation or hang out in white spaces. What I mean by this is that I went to the Hamptons recently, did not enjoy my myself. I would never go to something like the Kentucky Derby. Etc. Meanwhile, my friend who's Malaysian, said that in his words, he likes making people uncomfortable when he shows up in those spaces. For me, in the Hamptons was just deeply uncomfortable. When we walked into restaurants, people turned around. I saw a husband whispering to his wife to turn around to look at us. I know it was us too because it was me, my black friend and my Indian friend and everyone else. The restaurant was white. It may have been just a bad day, but personally I try to avoid places like that because I just don't want to be uncomfortable on vacation.

[Ben Shapiro]

Everyone in the Confederacy after the Civil War, like that's it. We should have killed every single man, woman and child after the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was wrong. And this is why we're here today, because there is a direct causality from history to now. I'm former MLB agent Joshua Kuznick and the Confederacy, no matter how unique you emo people feel from the south, we're all traitors. Man, woman and child. I don't have time to parse this. Just like I don't have the time to parse the good Yahtzees in Germany. Kill em all, I say.

[Sacha Stone]

The party of hate. I've lost so many friends, people I've known for years, ex boyfriends and colleagues. It was surreal to watch them pull away, to block, to unfriend, to attack me so relentlessly that I had to block them. They don't know who I am anymore and I don't know who they are anymore. They have become defined by that collective hatred, that poisonous intolerance that has driven so many people like me away from the party. The worse they get, the more violent they become, the less Americans will want them in power. And when I start to think about whether there will be a blue wave in 2026, I think about 1972. In 1974, students were shot at Kent State for protesting the war. It did nothing to change public opinion, but it did put Nixon on a path toward a record landslide victory. It was just one of a series of violent events that scared the public away from the Democrats, away from the left, with the manson murders in 1969 being another.

[Ben Shapiro]

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the.

[Sacha Stone]

Vietnam War, leaving four students dead.

[Ben Shapiro]

This tragedy, known as the Kent State.

[Sacha Stone]

Incident, further divided a nation already torn over US Involvement in Vietnam, and it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Had lasting effects on the political stage.

[Sacha Stone]

Students protested against the Vietnam War in large numbers. Young people who watched their friends, siblings, and peers being drafted were particularly active in demonstrating. Those students believed in a cause worth dying for. History has mostly vindicated them. The left of today believes they're fighting Hitler in concentration camps. Some believe that is a cause worth dying for. There's just one tiny problem. It isn't true. The reason I keep telling my story is that I know so much of what we lived through will disappear down the memory hole. We should never forget how crazy it all became and how hard it was for all of us to find our way back to a united America. Thank you for listening to my podcast, sashastone.substack.com and remember to thine own self be true. Tin soldiers and Nixons coming We're finally on our own this summer Hear them calling for dead in Ohio Got to get down to rest should have been done long ago what if you knew and found her dead on the ground? How could you run many Sam this summer I hear them drumming for dead in Ohio how many more? How many more long ago? What if you knew on the ground how could you run you nana.