Ep. 700 - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode centers on Ben Shapiro’s defense of Covington Catholic students against viral media accusations, arguing the story was distorted by bad faith reporting and amplified by social media bots. It then pivots to criticism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s climate, wealth, and reparations rhetoric, and surveys the Democratic Party’s leftward, race-focused 2020 strategy. The show closes with shutdown politics, entertainment commentary, and a broader critique of secular anti-Christian cultural trends.

Main Topics: Covington Catholic controversy and media backlash (Priority: 5/5): Shapiro argues the initial viral narrative about Covington Catholic students and Nathan Phillips was false or misleading, says the boys were doxxed and threatened, and criticizes outlets for refusing to correct the story promptly. Social media amplification and fake accounts (Priority: 4/5): The episode examines how anonymous or fake Twitter accounts helped spread the Covington clip, used as an example of how misinformation and confirmation bias spread across the media ecosystem. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Democratic left (Priority: 5/5): Shapiro ridicules AOC’s claims about climate catastrophe, billionaire morality, and reparations, presenting her as emblematic of a rapidly radicalizing Democratic Party. 2020 Democratic primary and racial polarization (Priority: 4/5): He argues Democrats are incentivized to pander on race, highlighting Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders as increasingly focused on calling Trump racist to win primary voters. Government shutdown and border wall politics (Priority: 4/5): The segment revisits the shutdown, blames Democrats for refusing compromise on border funding, and urges Republicans to frame the issue as a media-assisted political fight. Religion, secularism, and anti-Christian cultural hostility (Priority: 4/5): Shapiro ties the Covington backlash and other cultural disputes to a broader anti-religious trend on the left, arguing Christianity is being recast as mere affirmation rather than moral discipline. Entertainment and cultural critiques (Priority: 2/5): He briefly reviews Oscar nominations as shallow and politically driven, and criticizes Lady Gaga’s comments about Christianity and morality.

Key Arguments: The Covington Catholic students were unfairly smeared by the media based on an incomplete or false narrative, while the full video showed a different sequence of events. The media’s rush to judgment produced real-world harms, including threats, doxxing, and school cancellations for students involved. Social media virality can be manipulated by fake or coordinated accounts, as shown by the account that helped circulate the Covington clip. AOC’s climate rhetoric is apocalyptic and unserious; if the world truly ends in 12 years, tax policy is irrelevant, and if it doesn’t, the claim is alarmist. AOC’s hostility to billionaires misunderstands the role of profit incentives in job creation and poverty reduction under free enterprise. Calls for reparations based on the New Deal and redlining are presented as historically confused and politically exploitative. Democrats are moving further left and increasingly reliant on racial identity politics, especially in the 2020 primary. Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris are all framed as competing to signal anti-Trump racial solidarity rather than offer coherent policy. The shutdown is being prolonged for partisan reasons, and Republicans should more aggressively force Democrats and the media to explain their position. Modern secular culture, in Shapiro’s view, increasingly treats Christian moral boundaries as oppressive and replaces them with permissive self-expression. The Oscars and broader entertainment culture reward political signaling over quality. Lady Gaga is used as an example of how popular culture redefines Christianity as affirmation rather than moral restraint.

Data Points: Covington High School closures: School canceled classes and basketball games - Reported after death threats and bomb threats following the viral video controversy. Video virality: 2.5 million views - CNN Business-reported tweet/video that helped spread the Covington story. Account activity: 130 tweets/day - The account '2020fight' allegedly averaged this rate and had over 40,000 followers. Twitter followers: 40,000+ - Follower count attributed to the account that helped amplify the Covington clip. Democrats open to AOC: 74% - Poll showing Democrats would consider voting for Ocasio-Cortez if she were eligible to run for president. AOC definitely supported: 17% - Subset of Democrats who would definitely vote for AOC in the poll. Race concern (2008): 45% - Gallup measure of Americans worried about race relations in March 2008. Race concern (2015): 55% - Gallup measure rising during Obama’s presidency. Race concern (2016): 62% - Gallup measure near the end of the Obama years. Race concern (current): 64% - Gallup figure cited as only modestly higher under Trump than at the end of Obama’s term. World-end timeline: 12 years - AOC’s climate warning repeated in the transcript. Shutdown funding figure: $5.7 billion - Amount referenced as the requested border-wall funding. Federal funding comparison: 12 hours - Shapiro claims the requested wall funding is roughly equivalent to 12 hours of federal funding. AOC-related wealth stat: 12,000 billionaires - CNN tweet cited: billionaires allegedly own more wealth than the bottom 50% of the world.

Pivotal Quotes: "looking like Nick Sandman and Covington Catholic students were treated unfairly with early judgments proving out to be false, smeared by media" — Donald Trump: Trump’s tweet reacting to the Covington Catholic controversy after fuller video context emerged. "The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change." — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Used by Shapiro to critique her climate rhetoric as apocalyptic and unrealistic. "it gives me no pleasure to tell you that we now have a president of the United States who is a racist." — Bernie Sanders: Shapiro cites this as an example of Democrats adopting anti-Trump racial messaging for 2020.

Implications: The episode frames mainstream media and progressive politics as increasingly driven by outrage, identity politics, and moral certainty over accuracy. It suggests deeper polarization, greater scrutiny of viral narratives, and intensified 2020 messaging battles around race, religion, and border security.