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- [00:00]
Ben Shapiro
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So who owns your child's mind? Is it the social media companies or the government? Or is it you? There's a landmark lawsuit that just sent a gigantic shockwave through Silicon Valley with Meta, that's Facebook and YouTube found negligent in facilitating social media addiction. So today we're going to break down the case that could upend big tech, reshape AI regulation and force a national reckoning over parenting power and responsibility. Plus, we'll get into the latest on Iran. Is the US about to take down the regime wholesale? This is the Ben Shapiro Show. Let's get into it. All right, major legal news in the world of social media and AI. This breaking news is brought to you by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Visit benforthefellowship.org to provide life saving support like food, shelter and emergency services today. That's one word. Benforthefellowship.org so are you responsible for what your kids watch when it comes to social media? That is the big issue at the heart of a new legal case against Meta and YouTube. That legal case found both companies were negligent in facilitating social media addiction. So according to the New York Times, the bellwether case, which was brought by a now 20 year old woman identified as KJM or Kaylee, had accused social media companies of creating products as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. KJM sued Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and Google's YouTube over features like Infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations she claimed led to anxiety and depression. Kaylee said she'd begun using social media at the age of six and claimed the sites caused personal injury including body dysmorphia and thoughts of self harm. Now Variety reports on this too and they say that the verdict is rooted in an argument around cigarette addiction. So remember back in the 1990s there were all these settlements with the big tobacco companies where it was found that the tobacco companies fraudulently marketed products they knew were addictive as non Addictive. And that drew millions of people into serious health risks like lung cancer. And honestly, that, that doesn't seem like a crazy take. We were told originally that social media would be a gigantic benefit for all of us. It would open new vistas, we'd all experience new worlds. We'd have so many friends. Yeah, they'd be Facebook friends, but, but they were still friends. We'd never have to go outside again. We'd, we'd all live in the metaverse. And all the, well, all of that was untrue. All these social media companies are click machines. That is literally what they are designed to do. I mean literally in Pavlovian style, designed to do. There's a Stanford psychiatrist named Anna Lemke. She has a book called Dopamine Nation and she talks about this. She says, quote, we're wired to connect. It's kept us alive for millions of years in a world of scarcity and ever present danger. Moving in tribes safeguards against predators, optimizes scarce resources and facilitates pair bonding. Our brains release dopamine, dopamine, when we make human connections. And that incentivizes us to do it again. Social connection has now become drugified by social media apps, making us vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. These apps can cause the release of large amounts of dopamine into our brain's reward pathway all at once. Like heroin, method alcohol. They do that by amplifying the feel good properties that attract humans to each other in the first place. And it's not just the social connection, it's also because when you scroll on, say X, it's literally designed so you get a brief dopamine rush. That's why there's that little sound effect. It's almost a literal Pavlovian response. Right? A Pavlovian response originally was like you ring a bell and you front of a dog and you feed that dog a piece of meat at the same time. And eventually when you ring the bell, the dog will start to salivate even if the meat isn't there. Because the brain has now been trained. Bell means meat, so bell means salivate. And so social media companies do that too. This is why when you scroll, there's like a little sound effect that you do again. The idea there is that you're going to get a dopamine hit even if nothing new appears, just because you hear that little sound effect. Well, social media companies are arguing that they're not the ones who are actually doing the addicting to the really serious stuff. So they say, sure, our algorithms are designed to make you click, but it's the videos themselves that are responsible for the harm, not the design of the product. So in other words, if you were watching lots of cooking videos and it fed you an infinite loop of cooking videos and not skinny influencers, you'd be totally fine. And you're the one who decides whether you are clicking on skinny influencers or whether you're clicking on cooking videos. And what's more, it turns out that these social media companies aren't the ones who are actually making the content. Right? The social media companies say we're a platform like a phone line. Now, yes, they make money by featuring viral content, but it's the consumer who is picking which content to actually watch, and it is the person who is posting the content who's actually responsible for the content, unless it's an AI or a bot these days. Well, so far, social media companies have been avoiding legal culpability by citing section 230. Section 230 is a section that says that if you're a platform, meaning like your website, you have a comments section, you're not responsible for what's in the comments. If you're YouTube, you're not responsible for the content of the videos that are on YouTube because you're just providing the platform on which others can post. So section 230 says that all of these platforms ought not be held liable for content produced by others. But that's not really kind of on point. The actual argument here is that these social media sites are by their very nature addictive and that almost no matter what the content is, the medium is damaging to kids. According to Variety. During opening arguments, one of KJM's lawyers, again in Mark Lanier, presented the jury internal company documents from Meta and YouTube that showed tech executives knew of and discussed the negative effects of their products on children. Meta countered that KJM's mental health issues were not caused by social media. They were caused by familial abuse and turmoil. YouTube said it's not even a social media company and that its features are not designed to be addictive. Which again, is sort of true about YouTube, right? They have an infinite feed where if you just watch, it goes to autoplay. But Netflix has autoplay too. According to ABC7, Meta consistently argued that Kaylee had struggled with her mental health separate from her social media use, often pointing to her turbulent home life. Apparently, Meta also said now one of her therapists identified social media as a cause of her mental health issues. In a statement following Closing arguments. But the plaintiffs didn't have to prove that social media actually caused Kaylee's struggles. They had to show that it was a substantial factor in causing her harm. So this raises a broader question for parents. Are you responsible for your children and their social media use? The answer here should be yes. And my kids aren't on social media because they are banned from using social media. And it turns out that kids who are addicted to TV also don't have great lives. But we don't actually hold the TV companies responsible for that fact. Like, nobody's suing Apple because your kid is watching Apple TV all day. That's a point made by Meta's president, Tina Powell McCormick, yesterday.
- [09:02]
Tina Powell McCormick
You know, as a mom, this is really important to me and very personal. I see firsthand just how hard the company is trying to ensure that there's not harmful content, to ensure that we are empowering parents to the best of our ability. And it's something that I watch being focused on every single day. We respectfully disagree with that decision and we're appealing now.
- [09:27]
Ben Shapiro
Again, she's not totally wrong here. And the fact is that as a parent of four kids going on five, I'm all over what my kids are consuming. I decide what movies they watch. I decide what TV shows they watch. They're not allowed on social media. They do not have interactive capability on social media or anything like this. So this issue is kind of a sticky wicket because, of course, social media companies are responsible for part of the problem because, again, dopamine response. And yes, parents are responsible for the problem. So here's the actual solution. The actual solution here is not gigantic lawsuits. It's not. The actual solution is, yes, governmental legislation banning social media for kids under 18, period. That is the thing we should be doing. It's what lots of countries are doing right now. And they are correct to do it. Users should have to register as over 18. Companies that don't do it should be held legally accountable. I mean, again, if we're going to actually carry this analogy all the way through, right, if we're going to treat social media like tobacco or alcohol, then the answer wasn't to sue tobacco companies for kids smoking, it was to ban kids from smoking. And the same is true for alcohol. The reason I'm a little bit averse to the lawsuit of all of this is because I think that it's going to extend now to adults. I think what's actually going to happen is this is going to be used as a broader argument, not just against social Media where I'm relatively indifferent to tell the truth, but to actual useful technologies like AI. Because this is a big societal question. Should we blame technology for our own failures as adults? Again, kids are a different story. The reason that this particular lawsuit is emotionally appealing is because it's about a kid who got addicted. And kids do get addicted. And honestly I blame their parents as the primary source. I don't let my kids get addicted to things. It's my job to prevent that. I don't give my kids candy bars, even though they want candy bars every single day, all the time. And if I decide to feed that to them and then they get type 1 diabetes, I don't think that's on the candy company. I think it's on me. My biggest problem here is that we start blaming technologies for our failures as adults. We actually have to look to ourselves to solve some of these problems. Now, again, I'm going to point out AI here because AI, unlike social media, I think social media. There's an argument to be made that social media barely has positives. I think that I, I'm for, for a person who runs a company that uses social media because that is the way people consume information. I will say that I think that social media has been a massive net negative for humanity in general. A massive net negative. I do not think the same thing is true of AI, which is a world changing technology. So six days ago, the Trump administration issued a six point comprehensive national legislative framework. The first point of that framework was the most salient in this context. They said, quote, protecting children and empowering parents. Parents are best equipped to manage their children's digital environment and upbringing. The administration is calling on Congress to give parents tools to effectively do that, such as account controls to protect their children's privacy and manage their device use. And again, I think that parents ought to be the first line here because, you know, should we have a ban on kids using Chat GPT? I don't think so. I mean, it just needs to be supervised. I do, in supervised fashion use things like Gemini or Chat GPT or Perplexity with my kids. They're doing homework. I think that the AI is going to do a better job of explaining it in language that, that they understand than I will. I think a lot of parents are using these things for their kids this way to really productive effect. Remember my daughter who is now 12, my daughter, she didn't understand a particular math problem. I was trying to explain it, I wasn't doing a good job. And so I went over to Gemini and I said I need you to explain this to me like I'm a 12 year old. And it explained it and I just had her read it and suddenly she understood it. So it is a useful technology and parents should be the first line of defense here. The Trump administration has formed a technology council that's filled with some heavy tech hitters to look into regulation of technologies like AI. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Trump installed some of the biggest names in business, including meta platforms, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to a technology council to weigh in on AI policy and other issues. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Tech, or pcast, will be co chaired by David Sachs, which makes sense. He has served as the White House AI and crypto czar, as well as Michael Katos, another tech advisor. President Trump named an initial batch of 13 members from the industry, including Google co founder Sergey Brin and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, on Wednesday. The council could ultimately include 24 people, according to an executive order. And again, that makes sense. I don't want a bunch of Congress people making the recommendations. I mean, have you ever met the people in Congress? They do not understand what computer is. They don't computer. I've literally sat in front of Congress people who do not understand what Internet is. So letting the people who actually understand the tech make recommendations and then holding them accountable for those recommendations, that is a hell of a lot better than allowing our legislators, many of whom are double digit IQs, who are still fighting the advent of the Internet. One thing that actually will die is all of us at some point. Yep, we all have an expiration date and that is why our sponsor, Policy Genius is here to help. The reality is the responsibility of protecting your loved ones and planning for the future is very heavy. Trying to navigate life insurance on your own is a giant bureaucratic mess. Policy Genius makes that process dramatically easier by acting as an online insurance marketplace, not an insurance company. So you can compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free and actually understand what it is you're buying. Their license team works for you, not the insurance carriers. 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With Policy Genius, you can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting just 276 bucks a year for a million dollars in coverage. Head on over to policygenius.com Shapiro to compare life insurance quotes from top companies. See how much you could save. That's policygenius.com Shapiro okay. I mean, the Democrats in particular have now become total tech doomers. Which is kind of amazing because if you go back a few years, they were not doomers. They were hanging out with the tech bros. And then it turns out that their heavily regulatory views on tech and also their insane social liberalism drove a lot of tech founders to move toward the right. And now all of a sudden everybody on the left is anti tech. You have Bernie Sanders explaining that AI is an existential threat to the human race. I mean, how this person is a respected human is beyond me. I will never get over it. This man is a leech on the ass of society. He has always been a leech on the ass of society. If you want to talk about existential threats to the human race, how about the philosophy that he expounds? The Marxist philosophy that treats all human individuals as part of a broader collective to be manipulated, to be manipulated by people like him. But here is Bernie saying AI is an existential again. Do I think that Bernie Sanders even knows how to use Gemini? I think Bernie Sanders sits there and writes in longhand requests to his aides who then go on Gemini. Listening to Bernie Sanders talk about Gemini is like watching a monkey try to understand quantum physics. Here's Bernie Sanders.
- [17:15]
Neil Ferguson
We need to develop a sense of urgency here. The economic impacts are going to be enormous. The impacts on our children will be enormous. And again, there is literally an existential threat to the existence of the human race. Now you tell me, do you think that leadership here on either side of the aisle, you say, whoa, we better get moving on this thing? The answer is no.
- [17:39]
Ben Shapiro
Okay? Now of course he doesn't have any solutions other than Just banning technology. A lot of the AI tumors do this sort of thing. When you ask them what would you actually do, then their answer is, I would form a government commission to look into it. You know, like, well, who should be on that commission? Like, you know, people. People should. Maybe some congress people, maybe some senators, maybe all those kinds of people. Like what? But that's not, that's not a solution. Should tech people be on it since they're the ones who actually understand the technology and where it's going? Nope. They should definitely not be. It should be idiots. It should only be idiots. So his chosen heir apparent, Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, who is better looking Ilhan Omar. Basically she says that since chat GPT everything was fine. It was hunky dory until chat GPT. Now everything is falling apart, says Alexandra Ocasio Cortez. Again, barely has a couple of neurons to rub together.
- [18:33]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
You know, just a four. A few short years ago, Sam Altman came before Congress and in a direct plea he begged us to regulate this industry. He said that these tools were under no circumstances ready, nor should they be integrated into weapons of war. That we must impose severe regulations immediately to prevent mass layoffs and to ensure that any productivity that comes of this industry can benefit working people. Three short years later, none of that has happened. And in fact in many cases the opposite has happened. And it is no surprise that in the four years since ChatGPT was released, we have seen seen AI deployed at a massive scale to create Big Brother like surveillance.
- [19:29]
Ben Shapiro
I mean again, the idea of AI is to raise productivity. When you raise productivity for each worker, that tends to mean you need fewer workers, at least in midterm. And then you get workers on the other end who are able to do those different kinds of jobs. But the Democrats have just turned anti tech entirely. AOC is slamming the energy demands of AI, despite the fact that a huge percentage of our current job creation is coming from the building of these data centers
- [19:56]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
because of the massive amounts of energy they use, power and water utility companies must build multibillion dollar infrastructure to keep up with the demand. And these companies are not paying for their own energy infrastructure. People's energy bills around the country are skyrocketing in order to pay for these AI data centers for them.
- [20:22]
Ben Shapiro
Now again, I am fine with the idea that if you are going to suck up an outsized share of the energy market, then maybe you ought to pay for the building of new energy facilities yourself and not be a burden on the collective that that I get. But here's the reality. The reason AOC is not in favor of any of this stuff is because like all the AI doomers, she doesn't actually know anything about AI or care anything about AI. I mean here she was yesterday saying she doesn't even use AI. One of my favorite things about Democrats, honestly it really is amazing is they say that they should control things they don't even participate in. So you remember that Tim Walls, when he was running for vice president, you know, before he was the disgraced governor of Mini Minnesota who was unable to run for reelection because of fraud. You'll remember that Tim Walls did this routine where he said I don't even own real estate, right. He was saying that he didn't participate in the market. This was a talking point. Being a moron who has no actual investment in the market was apparently a good thing for Tim Walls. And apparently AOC thinks you should regulate AI while never using like not knowing anything about AI. I have like a baseline here. You should know something about the thing that you are attempting to regulate before you do it. Here's aoc. Apparently again this is like a bragging point for her as being an ignoramus. Here she is talking about not using AI.
- [21:39]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
As far as AI, I, I do not regularly integrate it into my daily life, but I know many people do. I think our job tends to be a little bit more for me, my job, a lot of my job is quite writing based and I like to do my own, thank you.
- [21:57]
Neil Ferguson
Very old fashioned.
- [21:58]
Ben Shapiro
She likes to do her own work. If you believe that. I have a bridge in Brooklyn that is for sale. Her doing her own work. You know, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, he says that AI disruption is going to be bigger than we think. Now again, I don't disagree that it's going to be disruptive. It will be disruptive because every major technology is in the short run disruptive. But the idea that this then requires massive overregulation, that's the part I got a problem with.
- [22:26]
Axios AI Expert
All these bills are nice, but not anywhere near sufficient to the problem. I am, as you know, AI optimistic, long as maybe even all you guys at Axios. But long meaning 8 to 10 years. I am very and increasingly AI on the short term economic disruption. I believe today it is going to be exponentially bigger than I believed in as recently as last November or December.
- [23:04]
Ben Shapiro
So Democrats are dooming. So why again, as I say, I think a lot of these Democrats are dooming because the Tech Bros have been associated with President Trump. Until just a moment ago, Silicon Valley was beloved by all of these people. These were the forward looking, environmentalist, uber cool people. And then it turns out the tech community actually wants a president who's not going to ban their business. Well, you know, that would be the reason why Democrats are now reacting negatively to so much tech. Again, I think some tech needs to be regulated like social media for kids. When it comes to AI, listening to these people broaden out the general perspective, which is that the people who build tech companies are responsible for every use of the tech is totally, totally crazy. So things continue to percolate in Iran. Iran right now they appear to be suffering from a Passover disease, maybe a case of Pharaoh. God almost seems to be hardening their hearts. I have no other way to explain their current insane behavior, truly. So President Trump has already offered the off ramp denuclearization, an end to large scale building of ballistic missiles and drones, reorgan reopening the Strait of Hormuz, an end to offensive ballistic missile barrages. President Trump wants to get to the end of this. I mean, that's where we are. President Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal, has told associates in recent days he wants to avoid a protracted war in Iran, and he hopes to bring the conflict to an end in the coming weeks. Nearly one month into the war, the President has privately informed advisors he thinks the conflict is already in its final stages and he's urged them to stick to the four to six week timeline he has outlined publicly, according to people familiar with the matter. At the same time, according to the Journal, President Trump has directed the military to keep pressure on Tehran. The Pentagon is deploying thousands of ground troops to the Middle east to give the President options. Once additional soldiers and Marines are in position, Trump could quickly order a targeted raid either inside Iran or on one of the islands along the southern coast. Now, again, this is a smart way to do negotiation because sure, if negotiations work, then we should do it, but if not, we got to press Iran still further, press him to the map. And as for all of the concerns about where the American people are on this, the American people, we like victory. It's a thing. We, we don't like losing, we like winning. Now, one of the things that's happening right now is this bizarre media driven ADHD idea that the American people are sitting there on tensor hooks every single hour of every single day thinking when or when is it over? When is it over? Here is the thing. If you look historically, the American people actually have some patience. Our shortest wars were longer than the current conflict. The Persian Gulf War involved 43 days of active operations. The Kosovo NATO air war lasted for 78 days. Even deposing Noriega in Panama in the late 80s that lasted for six weeks. And also, Americans are not dumb. We don't believe that if you're involved in military activity, you're not going to lose anybody. Because again, if necessary, military activity can only be pursued at zero cost. There's no use in having a military. Literally, the point of a military is to do hard and dangerous things. That's, that's why our military members are heroes. That's because they're willing to undertake that sacrifice for a greater good. That, that is literally why we uphold their valor and celebrate it. So the idea that, that Americans are, are sitting here and they're just freaking out every single moment, that is not what the polls show some Americans are, but they were kind of generally against whatever President Trump does. Now Iran, for its part, seems to be counting on this view of Americans that have been shared by pretty much all of our enemies at one time or another that were weaklings, that were incapable of mobilizing for victory. Hitler famously thought that America was decadent and unstable. In one private conversation, according to sort of Hitler's notes, reportedly he said, quote, I don't see much future for the Americans. It's a decayed country. They have the racial problem, the problem of social inequalities. Everything about the behavior of American society reveals that it's half Judaized and the other half nigrified. And this is Hitler talking. How can one expect a state like that to hold together? Well, that didn't work out amazing for him. Osam bin Laden, he kept saying we were a weak horse. He actually said, quote, america's combat strategy is heavily dependent on the psychological aspect of war, which hides the cowardice and lack of fighting spirit of the American soldier. Now, America's enemies, again, this is a tactic. During war, they're always seeking to undermine the home front morale. That's part of war. And during Vietnam, the Viet Cong counted on the idea that Americans would get tired, that Americans would get bored. And after a while, they were right. Americans did get tired. After a while, they were right. Americans did want out. We should know that there were 50,000American dead by that point in Iraq and Afghanistan too. Our enemies thought, okay, they can just outlast the Americans. But here is the point. Who outlast Americans? Typically, right requires not months, not weeks, years. Because Americans are not nearly as stupid as our enemies think we are. Now listen, there are Serious questions to be asked about the war in Iran, particularly right now. People are looking at their 401ks right now and they're saying it's down. They get their stocks, their holdings, those are down. Gas prices are up. It, it would be foolish not to at least be thinking about it, not to be worried about it. And there are serious questions to be asked about whether we are going to have a sort of broader oil shock that spills over into a larger recession. Historian Neil Ferguson thinks that that's likely to happen. He wrote today, quote, were the Strait of Hormuz reopen to normal traffic, it would take between two and four weeks to bring this back online with some estimates as high as two months thanks to Iranian drone strikes. Qatar's Ras Laffen plant, the source of nearly one fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas, LNG been shut since March 2. A missile strike has seriously damaged nearly a fifth of its capacity. Repairs could take up to five years. He says he's quoting another piece, quote, even if Donald Trump and Iran reached a deal to stop fighting tomorrow, it would thus be another four months before markets regain some semblance of normality. So he quotes an author named Tyler Goodspeed and Neil Ferguson. Again, I'm friends with Neil. I think he's brilliant. He says that energy shocks tend to reduce disposable income. They create uncertainty, they delay consumption. Often they increase interest rates because you have price inflation. But markets are forward looking, as Neil Ferguson says. And I don't think there are that many people who believe it will take years for energy prices to come down again. Unless Iran maintains control of the strait. Unless Iran maintains control of the strait. First, today's episode is sponsored by our friends over at American Beverage. Think about all the iconic drinks you grew up with and you still love today. Whether it's a soda, sparkling water, tea or sports drink, the companies behind Those beverages, Coke, Dr. Pepper or Pepsi, they're always made right here in America. So there's a lot of talk right now about bringing jobs back. America's beverage companies never left in the first place. 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You're still getting that phytonutrient rich goodness without all the junk. Instead of over complicating your health with the latest fading, how about you fight, you know like the good fight with whole food phyto nutrition plus balance of nature go to balanceofnature.com to subscribe and save today. Join hundreds of thousands of people who've decided to simplify their routine and actually do something good for their bodies. Again, that's balanceofnature.com to subscribe. The reality is that there is no way to extricate ourselves from this situation right now. There is no way to extricate ourselves from this situation by simply running away. That does not leave Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz. Which means 100 to $150 barrels of oil from here to forever. That is a point that was made by Larry Fink over at Blackrock. Not a fink fan, but he's right about this.
- [32:03]
Neil Ferguson
If there's a cessation of war. And yet Iran remains a threat, a threat to trade, a threat to the, to the straits of harmouth. Then I would argue that we could have years, years of, you know, above $100, closer to $150 oil.
- [32:20]
Ben Shapiro
What happens to the global economy if that happens?
- [32:23]
Neil Ferguson
How do we see, we'll have global recession.
- [32:27]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, again, he's right about this. That's the point, is that it's not as though if things ended today, things would be better a month or two months or four months from now. With Iran still in control of the Strait of Hormuz, there is no way out but through. And here's the thing. Once we get to the end of this, if the Iranian regime falls, energy will become cheap again because the Strait of Hormuz will be free again. Not only that, you'll actually have American energy companies working with a friendly Iranian government to radically increase oil production. And because markets are forward looking, the price of energy will then go down. Now, again, we're covering all the news here, folks. This is one reason you should subscribe. Over@daily wire.com we got a lot going on here. We, we have our members asking questions that we answer directly. We have all accesses. We have great new content from hosts like me and Matt Walsh, Michael Moles and all the rest. Go subscribe right now so we can continue to bring you also breaking news. We have many, many more breaking news shows you only get if you're a subscriber. So head on over over there. So here is where the Iranian intransigence is, is really kind of shocking, honestly, because they make it impossible for the United States not to push harder. If they continue to close the Strait of Hormuz, they are forcing the United States to do the thing. Now, I think maybe they were just misreading the room. They think that if they push hard enough, then President Trump will cave. They're talking a big game right now. They're claiming that there are no negotiations taking place at all. I think that is highly unlikely. Here is Abbas Araki, who again may not have long for this earth, denying that negotiations have even taken place at all. On Al Jazeera, He says it present our policy is the continuation of resistance and the continuation of defending the country. We do not intend to negotiate. So far, no negotiations have taken place. I should point out at this point, things are not going particularly well for the Iranians. How badly are things going for the Iranians? According to IRGC official Raheem Nadali, they are. Now, I'm not Even kidding. They are now lowering the draft age in Iran, the minimum age for joining the war, to 12 to 12. They're starting to put children in their army because they're having such a tough time. By the way, demonstrates full scale how evil this regime is. Draft basically drafting 12 year olds. That is nuts. That is nuts. So does that sound like a strong regime? Does it sound like they're winning? So regimes that are winning start drafting 12 year olds. If all you knew about a war is that the United States had been reduced to drafting kids the age of my oldest daughter, like 12, would you think we were winning or that we were losing? I have to say that the media coverage of this war is so perverse and stupid. We're. By what metric are we losing? That the price of oil is higher in the middle of a war? Yeah, that's what happens in the middle of a war. Now, again, the Iranians are counting on the grievance party to save them. This is why the foreign minister, Rahi, he is out there suggesting that President Trump was sold the war by outside nefarious forces and that he's selling the war to the public. But Iran does not have a lot of choices here. Iran is still insisting on its own terms. According to the Associated Press, quote, Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araki said in an interview on state TV that his government has not engaged in talks to end the war and we do not plan on any negotiations. And that follows a report from Iranian state TV's English language broadcaster, Press TV, that quoted an official saying, quote, iran rejected America's ceasefire proposal and has its own demands for an end to the fighting. Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met. And it distributed to the anonymous official an Iranian 5 point proposal that included a halt to the killings of all of its officials, means to make sure that there is no future war waged against it. Reparations we're supposed to pay them. The end of hostilities and Iran's total exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, which is the like. That can't be. That can't be. If Iran is still in control of the Strait of Hormuz, then how exactly would that not be of massive benefit to the Iranian regime? The rest of the world could not sit still for that. But of course, President Trump has already announced that there have been certain concessions from Iran. He suggested yesterday that there was a big, beautiful prize that had been handed to him by Iran. It turns out that that is likely a few Ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz UN Harassed. The Times of Israel reported that Iran had agreed to allow a number of fuel tankers not tied to the US Or Israel through the Strait of Hormuz in order to help calm global markets. Again, Iran publicly continues to maintain they're doing nothing to foster negotiations. And President Trump says privately they're negotiating. I think that if they want to play chicken, they have picked the wrong guy to play chicken with. Here was Caroline Levitt at the White House yesterday.
- [37:19]
Caroline Levitt
President Trump dud is not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again. Their last miscalculation cost them their senior leadership, their navy, their air force, and their air defense system. Any violence beyond this point will be because the Iranian regime refused to understand they have already been defeated and refuse to come to a deal.
- [37:42]
Ben Shapiro
When President Trump put out a statement on truth social quote, iranian negotiators are very different and strange. They are begging us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been military militarily obliterated with zero chance of a comeback. And yet they publicly state they are only looking at our proposal wrong. They better get serious soon before it is too late. Because once that happens, there is no turning back and it won't be pretty. President Trump. Well, President Trump is also pointing out that it's hard to find leadership over there, mainly because every time a new leader is appointed, that leader is dead within 48 hours. Here was the president yesterday seen anything
- [38:19]
Donald Trump
like we're doing in the Middle east with Iran. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people. They're also afraid they'll be killed by us. There's never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran.
- [38:42]
Ben Shapiro
Again, he is not wrong about that. Last night, Israel apparently killed the Iranian officials responsible for closing the Strait of Hormuz itself. The Times of Israel reports, quote, Defense Minister Israel Katz says the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, Alireza Tangsiri, was killed in an Israeli strike. He said, quote, the IDF eliminated the commander of the IRGC Navy, the person directly responsible for the terror operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. Okay, let's get into what comes next. The most obvious answer is Kharag Island. I've been saying that all along, and I'm 40 years late. President Trump said it in 1988. The Iranians are already trying to threaten President Trump out of such a move. Mohammed Khaliba, that's the guy who supposedly we're negotiating with the supposed moderate in Iran who you know is friends with the IRGC, who blows away 30,000 Iranians last month or two months ago. He said yesterday there would be hell to pay if Harg island again, that's the small island that houses 90% of Iranian oil capacity for export if it were attacked. So he threatened relentless attacks if Harg were attacked. He said our forces are monitoring all enemy movements. If they take any step, all the vital infrastructure of that regional country will be targeted with relentless unceasing attacks. That's actually fascinating because it sounds as though he is concerned that UAE or Saudi is actually going to attack Harga Island. Right, that that's kind of fascinating. He says the infrastructure of that regional country. Right. He's not talking about the United States there, which as we'll get to in a moment, it's possible. Right. America's Arab allies are not in favor of us leaving Iran's government in place. This is like their worst fear is that Iran's government is left in place to sort of restock. According to cnn, Iran has been building up defenses of Kharga island in order to protect against a potential U.S. ground assault. According to CNN, quote, Iran has been laying traps and moving additional military personnel and air defenses to Kharg island in recent weeks in preparation for a possible US Operation to take control of the island, according to multiple people familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting on the issue. But U.S. officials and military experts say there would be significant risks involved in a ground operation, including a large number of U.S. casualties. The island has layered defenses. The Iranians have moved additional shoulder fired surface to air guided missile systems known as manpads there, as well as anti personnel and anti armor mines around the island and on the shoreline where troops would make an amphibious landing. Now again, I would assume that our military planners have thought of this. We are constantly hearing about the magical defense capabilities of the Iranians and so far the magical defense capabilities of the Iranians appear to be putting their bodies in the way of American bombs. Is not working. Amazing. And our Arab allies are getting antsy. They're becoming more clear in their support for open military action. In fact, six Arab states put out a statement again condemning the Iranian attacks. The UAE ambassador to the United States wrote in the Wall Street Journal, quote, more needs to be done to remove the missile and drone threats. We are ready to Join an international initiative to reopen the strait and keep it open. We aren't asking the US to carry the full burden. We're defending our people, protecting regional stability and global prosperity and demonstrating that real alliances are built on cooperation and contribution, not dependency. We want Iran as a normal neighbor. It can be reclusive and even unwelcoming, but it can't attack its neighbors, blockade international waters or export extremism. Building a fence around the problem and wishing it goes away isn't the answer. It would simply defer the next crisis. And of course, UAE is totally right about this. Again, that's not the Israelis, that is uae. So what is the end game here? The real end game? The answer is regime change behavior. And if that won't happen, then actual regime change. Caroline Levitt said, we want an Iranian leader who doesn't chant Death to America. That would be preferable.
- [42:23]
Caroline Levitt
As I've said repeatedly, I think the President obviously believes the United States wants to have someone in leadership position in the Iranian regime that will be much more favorable, that will be willing to work with the United States that will no longer chant Death to America.
- [42:42]
Ben Shapiro
Well, I mean, yes. And Iran knows this, by the way. And that is the reason why probably they're stuck between Iraq and a hard place. See, here's the thing. If they cut a deal with the United States that ends with them out of control of the Strait of Hormuz under the continued overwatch of Israel and our Arab allies like UAE and Saudi Excise from the world economy, it is only a matter of time until they collapse. One US dollar is currently trading for 1.3 million Iranian Riyals. Their currency is absolutely worthless. Totally worthless. By the way, that was even before the war. The real back in December was trading at 42,000 to the dollar. That was a fake number, by the way, because Iran's real is totally worthless. So basically, the Iranian government restricted its own citizens from, from actually being able to buy things from abroad. And that created a black market for American dollars in which one American dollar was already going for close to a million Iranian riyals. And then the Iranian government was unable to uphold its nonsense fake levels of a value on its real. And so in January it completely collapsed. There was a 3,000% decrease in value again that preceded the current action that was in January. So imagine now what the real is worth. The answer is less than zero. So here's, here's the thing that's kind of amazing here. People are acting as the time is not on America's side. Because of the public's pain threshold for gas that has increased in price over the last three weeks. But let's be real about that. If we can't outlast the Iranians, who, again, have no economy and no military and no. And no real forward capacity other than firing a few drones at our allies and trying to harass shipping, if. If we can't outlast them, that is not about Iran being strong. That is about our own political weakness. This, by the way, is why President Trump keeps saying, we're not in the middle of a war, we're in the middle of a military operation. Because let's be real about this. A war usually involves your opponent killing large numbers of your soldiers and doing you serious damage, not just randomly throwing bricks at your friends, which is basically what Iran has been relegated to. Here is President Trump yesterday.
- [44:56]
Donald Trump
Number one is they want to deflect from all of the tremendous success that we're having in this military operation. I won't use the word war because they say if you use the word war, that's maybe not a good thing to do. They don't like the word war because you're supposed to get approval. So I'll use the word military operation, which is really what it is. It's called a military decimation.
- [45:22]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so he's right about that. Now, the biggest critique of the administration is they haven't spent a lot of time explaining themselves, which, okay, fine, I think probably that's true. But their failure to properly explain themselves doesn't mean that what's happening right now is wrong or that America is losing. That's not true. Caroline Lovett was talking to young voters yesterday, and she said, trump is doing this for you, which is totally true, by the way. This is an act of political courage. I know sometimes it happens. It's so funny. We're having this conversation on Friendly Fire the other day with Michael Knowles and Andrew Clavin and Chris Rufo. We were talking about the political fallout, theoretically, from what's going on in Iran. It could. It could hurt Trump politically. And I said, like, guys, maybe Trump is doing a thing because he thinks it's the right thing to do, and that is a good thing. You elect leaders to do the right thing, even when the public isn't necessarily in favor of it. Leaders are not elected to simply put their finger in the wind and follow the latest polling. And President Trump has never done that. He's always gone his own way. And the reality is, of course, that President Trump is doing this for Young Americans, can you imagine a world in which Iran is not threatening all of its neighbors and exporting terrorism and building ballistic missiles and nuclear weaponry? Can you imagine a world in which the axis of Russia, Iran, China is broken? Can you imagine free flow, open flow of trade via the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea? The possibility of investing in moderate regimes all throughout the Gulf, and those regimes investing their money in the United States, because that's what's coming if we get what we seek to do here. That is what is happening. A new world, a better world. It is the biggest foreign policy victory in modern American history. If President Trump is able to effectuate regime change behavior or regime change itself. Here is Caroline Levitt explaining yesterday.
- [47:10]
Caroline Levitt
President Trump is doing this for you. He's doing this for young people so that we are no longer threatened by a rogue terrorist regime in the Middle east that seeks to kill the brave men and women who serve in our country in the Middle east, many of them young people themselves, young men and women who. Who serve this country honorably in uniform and have been threatened, killed and maimed by the rogue Iranian terrorist regime.
- [47:34]
Ben Shapiro
Okay? So the responses from the idiotic left and the grievance party right and foreign sympathizers with Iran continues to be astonishing. Ruben Gallego immediately said, quote, the best thing you can do for young people is not send them to die in a stupid war, okay? Can we stop treating American soldiers as though they are somehow pawns, as though they are victims? It's so. It's so diminishing. We do not have a draft in the United States. President Trump is, quote, unquote, he's not sending American troops to die in the Middle East. Again, this has been the most successful military operation in terms of damage done to America and damage inflicted upon our opponents in American history. The American military is 2 million people strong. The notion that President Trump is sending people to die in a war for no reason, that every war is Vietnam or Iraq or something, is just. It's nonsense. It's trash and stupid. It's stupid people talk. Well, speaking of stupid people, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who finds sympathy for terrorist groups throughout the Middle east and also, of course, in Iran, he is. He's saying that he's like the Pope, which, again, the Pope is not a political leader. He is a spiritual and religious leader. And so when the Pope says he doesn't like conflict and that everybody should be peaceful, that is a different thing than you, an elected political leader with a military at your disposal, coming down on the side of the Iranians. Again, he's comparing himself to the Pope. I mean, Madud. Just going to say no on that. It's a no from me. Dog. How much does Iran appreciate the Spanish Prime Minister? They're literally putting stickers of him on their missiles that they are then firing at civilian centers. Well done, Spain. You've done an amazing job. Meanwhile, the doltets over at the View, they say, you know, they don't love Iran, but you can't trust Trump either. Guys, get over yourselves. Seriously.
- [49:38]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Regardless of what Iran is saying about whether the President's spoken to them or not, I don't trust the feedback of President Trump. I really don't trust Iran either, because the kind of regimes over there, they send out propaganda, they manipulate numbers of what's happening, like we've been doing. Well, you exaggerate kind of.
- [49:58]
Ben Shapiro
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, we're just like the Iranians, according to these geniuses. Meanwhile, Joe Kent continues to run around saying silly, silly and terrible things about not only the Middle east, but about the murder of Charlie Kirk. He's actually slated to appear with. Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. Cenk Uyghur. Today, there's a shock. The horseshoes coming all the way around again. Joe Kent is indistinguishable from Hassan Piker, who is indistinguishable from Tucker Carlson, who is indistinguishable from Cenk Weger, and all of them are indistinguishable from Howard Dean and Noam Chomsky at this point. Caroline Lovett slapped Joe Kent yesterday and she is right to do so.
- [50:36]
Caroline Levitt
I think the President and I have both strongly responded to the criticism by Mr. Kent, who unfortunately resigned in disgrace and accused the President of basically being controlled by foreign countries and foreign manipulation, which is a ridiculous and laughable assertion. So his accusations have zero credibility as far as as this White House is concerned.
- [50:58]
Ben Shapiro
That is correct. One of the things that Kent has been saying, by the way, is that the FBI didn't do a full investigation into Charlie's murder. Ben Williamson, who's the FBI assistant director, slammed Ken's, quote, the FBI Assistant Director, Ben Williamson. He slammed Ken. He said, quote, a number of people have asked for response to this. So here it is. Joe Kent is being a dishonest hack. He worked for nctc, which is not a law enforcement or investigative agency. He had zero role or 1811 investigative authority in this. This is like me saying I was blocked from playing receiver for the commanders. It's an issue of having no business or frankly, ability doing something not an issue of access. Kent said that he was blocked from investigating. Furthermore, FBI actually made an early exception and allowed NCTC to assess intelligence reports. And international terrorism returned zero connections. Now, Joe Kent kept making things up anyway. The shameless media tour he's on, weeks of being desperate for attention and, and the baseless conspiracy theories he's spreading around the administration, particularly Charlie's murder, could very well make it more difficult to get justice for our friend. If he had any shame. Joe Kent should be ashamed of himself. Of course he, he has no shame. So here is the bottom line. America, victorious in the war in Iran, will change the world in tremendously positive ways. And what that requires of the American people. Yes. Is some patience. It requires some patience. And again, I find it kind of astonishing that we have to argue patience when the war is 26 days deep. 26 days, okay. That is, that is shorter than Kim Kardashian's marriage to Chris Humphreys. That's how short we are talking now. The 26 days is shorter than your 30 day trial to Netflix. So the idea that America's patience has run and that Iran is now standing over us, dominant, there is no measure by which this is true. Now true self reliance begins with taking control of your health. Our sponsor, Armor Colostrum, harnesses nature's original blueprint for resilience. Our bodies face constant pressure from toxins, processed foods, relentless stress. Amra Colostrum is a bioactive whole food, a pure concentrate of bovine colostrum that's sustainably sourced with a commitment to calf first sourcing. With over 400 bioactive nutrients, it fortifies your entire gut wall system and strengthens your immune system. From the cellular level up. This means balanced immune health, better digestion, less bloating and support for healthy metabolism and fat burning from the inside out. Your elite athletes have been using Colostrum for years because it enhances nutrient absorption, builds lean muscle and speeds recovery. But the benefits go way deeper. Cellular level support for hair, skin energy, everything. This isn't processed or manipulated. It's pure, potent and natural. Your body's blueprint for rebuilding itself the way it was designed to function. When you invest in your health, you invest in your ability to show up fully, think clearly and stay in control no matter what comes your way. We've worked out a special offer for my audience. Receive 30% off your first subscription order. Head on over to armor.comshapiro or head over. Enter Shapiro to get 30% off your first subscription Order. That's a R M R A.comshapiro it's
- [53:47]
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- [54:16]
Ben Shapiro
If all y' all have questions about the news or my latest hot take, be sure to submit them in the mailbag. This segment is sponsored by our friends over at Pure Talk. Daryl says, when did the crossover from committed authentic love to jilted cheating romance begin to be the norm? It seems every romance book or movie centers around unfaithful lovers these days. When did this begin? Well, I mean, one of the things about romance very often is the obsession with the taboo. So in a world in which sex outside marriage was the taboo, then the idea was the way you solve for that is the people fall in love and then they get married and then the taboo becomes acceptable. This is why all comedies in Shakespeare's era ended with a marriage at the end. Right? The tension has to be resolved in a marriage. And then we decided that sex outside of marriage was totally normal. You, so you had to find the next taboo. So what's the next taboo? And there are a bunch of taboos that open up at that point because the mind is always looking for taboos. Again, all drama is, is based in creating a sense of dramatic tension and then resolution of that tension. But there's no tension these days about sex. Anybody can have it at any time with anyone. So how do you create the tension? The tension is created by infidelity, which is still a thing that people have a problem with, at least at a, at a heart level. Ria says, hey Ben, if you were to reincarnate into an animal, what animal do you think you would be based on your personality? The wise owl. The wise owl who Scott says, should we be concerned about our allies nuclear capabilities as they begin to fall to foreigners with Islamist ideologies like England? Yeah, of course we should be worried about that. Of course we should. But England is not on the verge of being an Islamist state. It's on the verge and actually is in, in present a surrender oriented left wing state. That's not quite the same threat. It's a problem, but it's not quite the Same thing as Pakistan having nukes or something, which actually is a real threat. One more question. Jen says, hey Ben, do you think the shift to the two income household was good or bad for society? Do you think it is contributing to people's decision to not have children? The two income household, it's not a matter of was it good or bad for society. The reality is we had a break from history in the 1950s until until that period the two income household was actually quite normal like throughout human history. Think back to agricultural times. That was a two income household because it wasn't as though mom was doing no work and she was a quote unquote stay at home mom. She actually was out there in the field. She was out there milking the cows. She was turning the butter like doing all the things. The reality is that families have always done what they need to do to get by. That is not the reason for the massive downturn in childbearing and child rearing. The real answer is that because because you see this right countries where women are in complete poverty, have lots of kids. It is a cultural thing. It is a spiritual thing. It is not predominantly a materialistic thing. Alrighty folks, coming up, we'll answer some more of your questions in the vaunted mailbag. Remember, as always, if you want your question to be answered, if you wish to hang out with us, if you wish to see all of our magical paywall content, you need to actually go become a member. Use code Shapiro at Checkout for try 2 months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.
- [57:40]
Ryan Reynolds
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Ben Shapiro
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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Ben Shapiro
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