While the CBC comments that Ben Shapiro is radicalizing the youth, its own “Kids” section of the site has material that some would say constitutes political activism.
Conservative podcaster and author Ben Shapiro unloaded on the CBC after a report from the Crown broadcaster suggested that young men were being radicalized by watching Shapiro's content, despite the broadcaster's own content for young people showing extreme leftist political bias.
Brock Wilson of the CBC published a report titled "It’s a slippery slope': How young men fall into online radicalization." The story asserts that Shapiro's views are "controversial" and "some are outright discriminatory." The author says that Shapiro's view that "transgender people suffer from a 'mental disorder'" is an example of discrimination.
Gender dysphoria, however, is listed in the DSM, the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States.
The article says that while Shapiro "is not affiliated with any hate groups," he claims "experts in media, gender studies and the radicalization of young men say that the commentator’s content is prevalent in online extremist communities."
The article then claims that Shapiro is a part of "controversial — and increasingly harmful — views about masculinity, the objectification of women and the LGBT community."
Shapiro fired back at the broadcaster, writing "Here comes the media attempt to get me banned from social media."
"They can’t name which views of mine are particularly radical, so they just go for the ‘I’m radicalizing the youths!’ Pathetic garbage from Canada’s public broadcaster."
"What, precisely, are my Bad Views™ about masculinity? That men should be responsible? That they should get jobs, get married, and take care of their children? Sounds Very Very Bad™!
"I suppose my Bad Views™ is that natural law views of human sexual behavior and its moral component are correct,” Shapiro wrote.
"This is the part that is unacceptable: that I believe married heterosexual activity is morally superior to all other types of sexual activity. Well, tough sh*t. It is."
During a segment of his show, Shapiro continued his criticism of the CBC.
"According to the CBC, which is essentially the NPR of Canada... A left-wing, state-funded enterprise... Apparently, all of my speech should probably be banned, because after all people might watch my stuff and there's an off chance you might see even worse stuff, and then that might lead to a rabbit hole of the super, super bad stuff," Shapiro said sarcastically.
"The goal of the CBC piece is to get my content banned on social media, so what they have to do here is say what about my views is so terrible, so instead what they do is say 'well, young people watch my stuff and then increasingly watch other people's stuff and that other people's stuff is really bad, and then worse stuff. They'll never use this argument about, for example, marijuana, and that virtually everyone who uses hard drugs starts with marijuana... We have to pretend now that marijuana is not addictive. It is addictive by all available data.
"We aren't allowed to make that argument. We're also not allowed to make the argument about the slippery slope on pornography. If we say that people who access porn and a subsection who access that porn is going to access more and more extreme versions of porn up to and including violent porn, and that that has an effect on people's souls and makes them less sensitive about women, you can't say that either. Slippery slope arguments only apply to things they want them to apply to, namely politics," Shapiro said.
While the CBC comments that Ben Shapiro is radicalizing the youth, its own "Kids" section of the site has material that some would say constitutes political activism.
In 2020, CBC Kids News published an article in favour of Canadian teens embarking on a hunger strike to protest the since-cancelled Teck mine project in Alberta.
The article details famous historical hunger strikers, their achievements, and what happens to the body when it is denied food.
The outlet has even promoted drag to children in the past. The CBC had promoted a full length documentary titled "Drag Kids", where children are seen performing in what they call the "art form of drag."
That documentary was pushed on the CBC Kids News portal of their site.
A CBC's children's show even went so far as to call Harry Potter author JK Rowling "transphobic" and "dangerous" for saying that only women menstruate.
According to True North, in the June 12 episode of the CBC Kids News program Recap, the three cohosts praise Daniel Radcliffe as "inspiring" after he called trans women "women." They say that it was "transphobic" to say that only women menstruate.
The broadcaster also provided a platform for young adult novelist Ben Philippe, author of books such as "The Field Guide to the North American Teenager," whose latest novel included fantasies about trapping white people in a room, where they would then be blown up and gassed. He told this to a Jewish author who would go on to apologize to him for having been made to feel this way.
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