(JustPatriots.com)- Last week, podcaster Ben Shapiro revealed that he spoke with podcaster Joe Rogan about Rogan repeating the anti-semitic trope about Jews and money while defending Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s anti-semitic remarks.
During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the host said Omar’s comment that Americans supporting Israel is “all about the Benjamins” wasn’t an anti-semitic remark.
Rogan argued that Omar was “talking about money” and “that’s not an anti-semitic comment.” He said arguing that Jewish people aren’t “into money” would be like arguing that “Italians aren’t into pizza.”
During last Thursday’s broadcast of The Ben Shapiro Show, when a caller asked Shapiro if there was a difference between jokes and malicious anti-semitism, Shapiro said jokes are different from “honest observations.”
He said he spoke with Joe Rogan the day before and Rogan said his point was that everyone likes money “and Jews are good with it.”
Shapiro said that comment is different from how Rogan framed it in his defense of Omar. He said, “there is a difference between making stereotypical comments and having a stereotypical worldview.”
Shapiro explained that anti-semitism is “damaging” when the actions are “tied to a full-scale worldview.” He said when prominent people say things that tie into that kind of worldview, “or give credence to that worldview,” that is a problem. But it is the worldview itself that is the “bigger problem,” Shapiro added.
To give an example, Shapiro said making a “stereotypical comment” about blacks while joking with friends, while it is “ugly” and “bad,” doesn’t make someone a lifelong racist. Instead, it just means that someone said a “bad, racist thing.” It doesn’t mean that the person is buying into “a full-scale racist worldview.”
Likewise, Shapiro added, someone who makes a joke about Jewish people isn’t necessarily “buying into a broad-scale program with regard to Jewish conspiracy theory.”
