Ben Shapiro, Free Speech, and the Dont Say Gay Bill – The Bulwark

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Various and sundry: Shh! Shh! Shh! Shh! Shh!

News anchor 1: The so-called Dont Say Gay bill

News anchor 2: The controversial bill

Ben Shapiro: Dont Say Gay bill.

Tim Miller: Wait, is this The Silence of the Gays?

Shapiro: I dont understand why this is remotely controversial. . . . Tim Miller, because hes gay and he has kids, hes very upset about this.

Miller: Damn right I am. And Im tired of your hypocritical free speech bull**** act.

This is Not My Party, brought to you by The Bulwark. For the past few weeks, the internets most brazen defenders of free speech have been yelling about how Joe Rogan is getting canceled.

Shapiro: Make no mistake . . . this is a freedom-of-speech issue.

Miller: They say that we must defend poor Joe and his hundred-Milli bag from the woke mob thats out to get him.

Peter Venkman: Poor, poor man.

Podcast February 18 2022

With two Arctic powers in crisis, David Frum joins Charlie Sykes to cover the waterfront:

Miller: In case you missed it, the backstory is that Rogan basically had some anti-vax lunatics on the show and said the N-word a few times back in the day. So the keyboard warriors are calling for Spotify to deplatform him.

Dakota Stanley (Whit Hertford in Glee): Get off my stage!

Miller: And well, my opinion is that Rogan has said some dumb s***, but isnt that kind of his brand?

Joe Rogan: F*** yeah.

Miller: If he wants to do deep dives with conspiratorial cranks on his show, its only natural that the internets gonna make fun of him for it. And from time to time hell lose a sponsor. But thats not a big threat to free speech. Thats the free market at work, baby.

Gordon Gekko: Capitalism at its finest.

Miller: But the cancel culture catastrophists seem to disagree with that.

Shapiro: We all understand what this is . . . which is an attempt . . . to deplatform Rogan!

Miller: So I dont know, I like free speech but I have trouble taking these complaints seriously cause (1) Rogan continues to kill ithes not canceled! And (2), the people always obsessing over left-wing cancel culture seem to change their tune when its the libs getting silenced.

Cletus Spuckler: Prove it!

Miller: Case in point: Have you heard about this new proposal in Florida?

News anchor 3: Dont Say Gay bill

Miller: Gay. Heres what it actually says:

Reporter 1 voiceover: Schools cannot encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity.

Miller: One Republican [state] senator gave an example of a type of homework assignment this would ban: If a word problem said Sally has two moms or Johnny has two dads.

Homer Simpsons: I never thought such a thing was possible!

Miller: To enforce the ban, the state would give crocodile Karens free rein to sue any school that got too gay for comfort.

iDubbbz: Im gay!

Lionel Hutz: Fine, well see you in court.

Miller: Now this is obviously insane, retrograde s***. It would mean a gay teacher couldnt even mention their husband? My kid could be banned for making this super-cute valentine? You would think the free speech-defenders would side with the gays on this one. Right?

Woman on How I Met Your Mother: Right?

Man: Right?

Miller: But nope, Trumps heir apparent and the top right-wing media personality are both all about it.

Reporter 2 voiceover: Governor DeSantis gave his clearest indication yet that he supports this bill.

Stan Smith: Gays!

Shapiro: As a family-values conservative, I do not feel that it is appropriate for you to be teaching my child about two lesbian mommies or two homosexual daddies. . . . I dont understand why the priorities of Tim Miller or the teachers should take priority over the parents.

Miller: This little Napoleon seriously wants the state to put teachers back in the closet? What, now they have to take their family photo off their desk and stuff it in the drawer just because this guy got stuffed in lockers as a kid?

Shapiro (singing Javerts song Stars from Les Misrables): Mine is the way of the Lord.

Miller: Heres Ben on whether teachers should fear reprisal if they dont obey.

Shapiro: First of all, they should always feel like theyre on thin ice.

Miller: So let me get this straight, when the Twitterati get #CancelJoeRogan trending, these free-speech activists rush to his defense. But when a teacher gets in trouble for mentioning their happy gay family, thats totally cool?

Leslie Knope: Does anyone else here see a double standard?

Miller: There are similar proposals in eight states. Texas is removing gay YA books, Kansas banning any depictions of homosexuality, and Tennessee anything that normalizes the gay lifestyle.

Stan Smith: You cant live a gay lifestyle!

Sassy Gay Friend (Brian Gallivan): Slow down, crazy, slow down.

Miller: Look, Im sympathetic to the view that left-wing cancel culture can go too far. We did an episode on it a while back. But you cant just stand up for free speech when it happens to be politically convenient for you. Barking about protecting speech and then leading a silencing campaign when it suits you is pretty sus.

Dean Pelton (Jim Rash on Community): Well, I guess we dont see our patterns until theyre all laid out in front of us.

Miller: As for Florida, hopefully cooler heads will prevail and the state wont put teachers and kids like mine in the closet. But in the meantime, if you live there, write to your state legislator and tell em what you think. And well see you next week for more Not My Party.

And hey Ben, since youve been watching, would love to have a longform debate with you anytime.

Shapiro: Bring the hammer.

Mushu: This is gonna be good!

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Ben Shapiro, Free Speech, and the Dont Say Gay Bill - The Bulwark