Quote:
Originally Posted by specious_reasons
So, what I'm saying is that Zepps didn't have the chops to confront Adams effectively. A shame, but it wasn't terrible enough to make me immediately delete the podcast, though.
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Next podcast, Ben Shapiro. I don't know of this guy, but he's a fast talking intellectually inclined conservative. Wrote some book on liberal "bullies" and another on how universities indoctrinate young people into liberals.
This guy is someone who has come to all of his decisions "rationally" - in scare quotes because he started from the point that everything he believes is true and correct, and he derived everything else from that.
The bulk of the discussion was on social safety nets and trans issues. I thought that Zepps did pretty well on the social safety net side of things. His experience in other countries basically highlighted that Shapiro has not bothered to think about how other countries are managing things like healthcare or welfare, Shapiro just knows they're bad without particular evidence.
However, once again I wish Zepps was better prepared to deal with his interview subject. Shapiro's take on transgender issues is pretty much, "There's men and women and if you don't like it, fuck off. Well, maybe there's some intersex people, but who cares? Have them pick a side."
This is coming straight from his conservative religious beliefs, but he pretends this is the rational, science based answer. He also pretends that the social policy that he derives from his viewpoint is simply the most utilitarian.
Well, I kinda wanted Zepps to defy Shapiro on the scientific accuracy of his views on sex and gender. But he didn't, Zepps seemed to make a policy based argument which Shapiro kind of ran around with talk of the greater utility.
I want so badly to like Josh Zepps' podcast, as he generally did so well on the "Point of Inquiry" podcast.
