Debating Ben Shapiro’s Unprincipled Position on Disgraced Disney Director James Gunn
By Ali Alexander and Jonathan Lockwood
“A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work,” preached arch-conservative commentator Ben Shapiro in his gospel Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism is Corrupting Our Future. These words seem empty as just days ago Shapiro hurried to the defense of far-left Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director James Gunn, who has come under fire for salacious commentary promoting pedophilia.
Gunn didn’t just make an off-color joke or engage in some dirty 21st century locker room talk. Gunn’s tweets, totaling over 10,000 that were deleted, were evil. So evil, that Disney fired Gunn faster than when ABC fired Roseanne Barr for slamming Valerie Jarrett in a tweet reply. What’s bad enough for Disney though, is apparently good enough for the former author of how social liberalism literally brings about Armageddon.
It’s a question many are asking, what additional information does Disney have on Gunn?
Late Thursday night, Mike Cernovich, a centrist social writer-activist and childrens advocate who has aligned himself with right-wing political movements over the past two years, began sharing Gunn’s insidious tweets. Less than 12 hours after Cernovich, who was amplified by One America News’ Jack Posobiec and the film, An Open Secret, which documents the systemic sexual child abuse found throughout Hollywood, began sharing this evidence with the public Disney fired Gunn from the upcoming sequel.
Gunn tweeted these comments in his forties. He is reportedly worth $100 million and the writer-director of a teen film series. These aren’t tweets from a college kid trying to get attention, or a rising standup comedian trying to bombast their way into the public spotlight. This wasn’t a careless retweet, or a foolishly shared comic. These comments should be damning to anyone, like Shapiro, who strategically positions themselves on the most archaic of social conservatism.
Strange, isn’t it? Maybe not. Shapiro grew up, and still lives, in Hollywood. His mother is a power-player within the industry and his cousins are actors Mara Wilson and Daniel Ben Wilson.
The podcaster takes every opportunity to contrast himself with Cernovich, falsely labelling the centrist “far-right” in an attempt to corroborate with media; that same Shapiro who publicly and privately worked to deplatform Milo after old controversial comments resurfaced; that same Shapiro who believe “ABC was right to dump Roseanne [Barr]” from the hit show, Roseanne, after comments that were labeled racial. (They totally weren’t racist, by the way.)
Memed, by corporate media, as the intellectual of the conservative millennial generation, this controversy exposed a glaring that even his allies aren’t willing to defend. In more than a decade of politics, I can’t recall two situations with so few variables. This is where Shapiro’s “facts don’t care about your feelings” axiom appears to be more of a disarming debate tactic than a tenet he holds true in his own life. Both Barr and Gunn made comments using the Twitter platform. Disney is the parent corporation for both productions in question. Shapiro claimed he used a free market standard to reason away Barr’s firing and now we know that not to be the case.
Gunn agreed with Shapiro, Roseanne was bad news.
Shapiro wrote “that firing [Gunn] for vile old joke tweets is bad precedent and a mistake,” and that “[t]here is no limiting principle to the outrage mob.” This is like a circus ringleader denouncing the Ringling Bros.
Gunn appears to have authored hundreds of anecdotes and jokes, spread across several years as an aged adult, on his blog and Twitter accounts (which were subsequently scrubbed). Gunn’s apology, like Shapiro’s purposefully bland extended defense of Gunn, was telling. Neither mentioned what Gunn was actually excused of, instead both reduced Gunn’s comments to “jokes.”
Should someone who jokes about the molestation and abuse of children be directing children movies?
Well, consumers, especially parents, certainly didn’t think so. Subsequently, a private corporation made the decision to fire James Gunn.
Are we, citizens and consumers Shapiro labeled the “outrage mob,” not allowed to be vocal participants in the marketplace? Does Gunn’s pedophilistic speech, championed by Shapiro, nullify our criticism of that speech? None of Gunn’s opponents are arguing that he go to jail or the government be used against him.
James Gunn Did More Than Make Jokes
In one scrubbed blog post, Gunn celebrated a monkey masturbating, then ejaculating, on a small child. Crude and maybe, in isolation, a strange tale, but against the bulk of 10,000-plus tweets, the pleasure in which Gunn relished the graphic details, it’s a tall order to simply turn a blind-eye to as Shapiro chose to do.
By his own admission, Gunn has taken great delight in frequently watching children and sex acts.
Many parents were concerned about one tweet, in particular, which allegedly linked to child porn he hosted on his own website before taking it down Friday morning.
Through some tough investigating, it turns out this link wasn’t to child porn, but a video of young girls singing “I Touch Myself.” Perhaps this was a quip, but I don’t know that this was just a quip. And why was it a quip — like, what was he thinking? The lyrics, in light of Gunn’s 10,000-plus comments and blog, leaves a swampy feeling.
Case closed—it was just a joke, right? Not exactly.
This seems to be all personality driven.
Fortunately, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) is not buying Shapiro’s argument and believes authorities should be looking into Gunn.
Wow. These #JamesGunn tweets are just horrible. Child rape is no laughing matter. As Texas SG, I handled far too many child sexual assaults. Truly evil. I’m glad Disney fired him, but if these tweets are true, he needs to be prosecuted. pic.twitter.com/1IgHC18J4x
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 21, 2018
Two additional questions worth considering are:
- Was Ben Shapiro defending of James Gunn on his Twitter, the Daily Wire blog, and podcast because Gunn had defended him? Is this tribal Hollywood protecting Hollywood?
- Was Mike Cernovich’s takedown of James Gunn the reason why Shapiro opposed it?
- Are there any disclosures Shapiro would like to make about himself or his family’s relationship with Gunn, his associates, or Disney or its subsidiaries?
These are questions Shapiro won’t host a debate on. Why not?
Intellectual Dark Web surfer Ben Shapiro appears to be playing for himself, not the ideas his purports. Reached Friday afternoon, Cernovich replied to me with, “[w]e are playing to win.”
Disney is considering re-hiring James Gunn with the aid of Shapiro’s commentary. What will you do, dear reader?
The post Ben Shapiro Loses Debate Defending Disgraced Perverted Disney Director James Gunn appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
