Skip to main content

Clarity in this chaotic news cycle

There’s an overwhelming amount of news, but not enough context. At Vox, we do things differently. We’re not focused on being the first to break stories — we’re focused on helping you understand what actually matters. We report urgently on the most important issues shaping our world, and dedicate time to the issues that the rest of the media often neglects. But we can’t do it alone.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join today

Actor Mark Duplass apologizes for praising conservative pundit Ben Shapiro

Here’s why Duplass was right to take back his praise.

mark duplass, ben shapiro, controversy
mark duplass, ben shapiro, controversy
Mark Duplass, doing something other than praising Ben Shapiro.
Tasia Wells/Getty Images
Zack Beauchamp
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.

The right-wing pundit and self-styled free-speech warrior Ben Shapiro is in the news again. It falls on me, sadly, to explain why.

The controversy began on Wednesday afternoon, when the actor and film producer Mark Duplass encouraged fellow liberals (in a now-deleted tweet) to follow Shapiro’s work to get a sense of what conservatives believe.

“Fellow liberals: If you are interested at all in ‘crossing the aisle’ you should consider following @benshapiro,” Duplass tweeted. “I don’t agree with him on much but he’s a genuine person who once helped me for no other reason than to be nice. He doesn’t bend the truth. His intentions are good.”

The tweet lead to a major social media backlash — Shapiro has a long history of saying offensive things — and an apology from Duplass. This, in turn, led to a backlash to the backlash, with conservatives and writers who frequently argue against “political correctness” claiming that the episode was proof of liberal intolerance.

In short, this isn’t just a controversy about an actor and a conservative provocateur. It’s about the Way We Talk today — and just where we draw the lines of acceptable political opinion and partisan disagreement.

Why Ben Shapiro is polarizing

Shapiro, the editor-in-chief and founder of the Daily Wire, has been opposing Trump since 2016 — garnering a level of mainstream respectability that led to the New York Times terming him “the cool kid’s philosopher.”

But he has a much longer history of saying reprehensible things. I’m not using “reprehensible” as a synonym for “conservative”; I’m talking about things that are frankly too offensive or too ignorant to be acceptable in polite company:

That’s hardly an exhaustive list. After being doing more research on Shapiro, Duplass decided to pen an apology, particularly focusing on Shapiro’s record on race and other identity issues:

This led to Shapiro throwing a pity party for himself on Twitter feed — blaming liberal groupthink on social media for Duplass’s denunciation and claiming the same problems would exist with “any conservative.” (I can’t recall every conservative in the United States calling for ethnic cleansing or suggesting that Trayvon Martin deserved to die, but maybe that’s just me.)

Shapiro wasn’t alone. Some self-identified liberals, like Thiel Capital managing director Eric Weinstein, rose to his defense.

Weinstein is part of the so-called “Intellectual Dark Web,” a group of online writers united by their skepticism of identity politics, political correctness, and what they see as an anti-intellectual left. This group includes Shapiro, and they know each other socially. So Weinstein rose to Shapiro’s defense, in a particularly revealing fashion:

What Weinstein did, unintentionally, is expose a whitewashing move that happens so often in anti- “free speech” and “political correctness” argumentation — making the issue not about the offensive speech itself, and what it says about the speaker, but the fact that people don’t like that speech in the first place.

Shapiro can’t unsay the things that he’s said in the past — things that, for the most part, he has not apologized for or recanted. So Weinstein simply demands immunity for them, claiming they part of a “red meat” act that shouldn’t be taken seriously. He’s arguing that the real Ben isn’t the sum total of his work, but rather the nice things he says to his liberal friends. We should try to reason away his beyond-the-pale opinions, when in fact they’re evidence he might not be a reasonable person.

You see a similar effect whenever one of the New York Times’ op-ed pages recent hires — I’m thinking of Bari Weiss and Bret Stephens specifically — writes something offensive or poorly thought out. You’re asked to look past the offensive work in question, like Stephens’s pieces denying climate change science, and try to have a reasonable conversation. The problem is that the so-called indiscretions are as characteristic of their work and worldview as their more reasonable sounding output — but pointing that out can be portrayed, by people like Weinstein, as evidence of intolerance, of refusing to listen to the other side.

Duplass seems to have concluded that a similarly complete look at Shapiro’s record reveals he isn’t exactly the person he presents himself to be when speaking to mainstream audiences — a thoughtful #NeverTrump conservative — but in fact is someone far cruder and crueler.

That seems like a reasonable assessment given the evidence. It’s telling that some so-called liberals disagree.

See More:

More in Politics

The crisis coming for our national parks, explained in two chartsThe crisis coming for our national parks, explained in two charts
Down to Earth

Parks were already facing a staffing problem. Then came the government purge.

By Benji Jones
The deeply online origins of MAGA 2.0The deeply online origins of MAGA 2.0
Politics

Why Trump’s second-term agenda is so wildly different from his first.

By Andrew Prokop
President Trump’s first 100 daysPresident Trump’s first 100 days
LIVE

Trump appears intent on remaking the executive branch as he sees fit. The news is changing rapidly. Follow here for the latest updates, analysis, and explainers.

By Vox Staff
What we know about Trump’s wave of federal firings so farWhat we know about Trump’s wave of federal firings so far
Politics

How a radical push to shrink government might affect you.

By Sean Collins
The obscure manifesto that explains the Trump-Musk power grabThe obscure manifesto that explains the Trump-Musk power grab
On the Right

Russ Vought, Trump’s OMB director, wrote an essay in 2022 that reads like a blueprint for what was to come.

By Zack Beauchamp
The fight over everyone’s private tax data, explainedThe fight over everyone’s private tax data, explained
The Logoff

Elon Musk’s group is pushing for access the IRS’ most sensitive information.

By Patrick Reis