Ben Shapiro belly flops on Social Security: “Retirement itself is a stupid idea”

This week, Daily Wire founder and professional talker Ben Shapiro belly flopped into the nation’s ongoing debate regarding retirement benefits. Speaking from the comfort of his podcast studio, Shapiro advocated for raising the retirement age, saying, “No one in the United States should be retiring at 65 years old. Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem.” Despite the widespread condemnation Shapiro received on both the right and left, he doubled down on his claims during a petulant diatribe the next day.

Shapiro’s cringy elitism, mixed with a seeming disregard for people who actually work for a living, made his comments a unique lightning rod for criticism. His views, however, are far from uncommon in conservative punditry:

• The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called for Social Security to be “abolished.”
• Newsmax guest Peter Schiff: “Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare — all that stuff needs to be cut. And not for the future beneficiaries, but for the people who are getting benefits right now.”
• Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk called for cuts to Social Security: “I’m not a fan of retirement. I don’t think retirement is biblical.”
• Fox’s Mark Levin admitted that “Republicans have had a plan for 20 years” to increase the eligibility age for Social Security.
• Fox’s Sean Hannity last year applauded a GOP plan to “sunset” Social Security.
• Conservative comedians Keith and Kevin Hodge, known as the Hodgetwins, posted: “Social security is a damn Ponzi scheme. The money we pay in gets stolen by the government and fraudulently spent.”

During a rambling and often incoherent CNBC interview on Monday, presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump admitted he would cut Social Security and Medicare if he is reelected. As president, Trump repeatedly included cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his official budget proposals, breaking promises he had made during his 2016 campaign.

While it’s true that Shapiro’s admitted desire to see Americans working until death was, perhaps, more blunt than we’re used to hearing, he was speaking a basic orthodoxy in conservative politics.

Conservative media are coming for your retirement benefits, and they’re being blatantly honest about that.

Fox News ran nearly 400 weekday segments on “migrant crime” in the first 10 weeks of 2024

Fox News spent the first months of 2024 blaming President Joe Biden for an unverifiable surge in violent “migrant crime” as the network gears up to reinstall disgraced former President Donald Trump in the White House. In reality, immigrants commit far fewer crimes on average than native-born Americans, violent crime reportedly continues to fall from its Trump-era heights, and there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime spike.

From January 1 to March 8, Media Matters found that Fox ran at least 388 weekday segments featuring significant discussion of “migrant crime.” Only 11 of those segments even hinted at the idea that on the whole migrants are not criminals (that tally includes segments criticizing politicians or journalists at other networks who made the point).

Fox’s incendiary, zone-flooding coverage is in sync with Trump’s talking point. The twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president claims to have personally invented the term “migrant crime” and has made warnings about it a fixture of his public remarks and interviews.

Fox’s narrative may not comport with actual crime data, but the network’s propagandists are happy to build a Trump campaign issue around vibes and anecdotes as they gear up for another presidential election as his minions.

This week in stupid

• Fox’s Sean Hannity advised Americans who are struggling financially to “live beneath your means.”
• Fox anchor Bill Hemmer claimed “global warming” doesn’t exist because he was surrounded by ice in the Arctic.

This week in scary

• Trump ally Laura Loomer on anti-immigrant vigilante violence: “I’m not gonna care when it happens. … They’re pushing people to the brink.”
• The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said immigrants “come from decaying, dying, dead, nonexistent civilizations without the skills to build a civilization.”
• War Room guest Todd Bensman suggested sending Haitian immigrants to Guantanamo Bay.
• Alex Jones: “We know they are publicly trying to steal this election again.”

Excuse me?

• Fox’s Mark Levin: “We’re an industrial society. There’s no idea and no way to have perfect air and perfect water.”
• The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens pushed speculation that French first lady Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman.
• The Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavan: “If Joseph Mengele had described gender-affirming care to Hitler, Hitler would have reeled back in horror.”

Far-right figures invoke “Hollywood pedophiles” and “humiliation rituals” after John Cena’s “streaker bit” at the Oscars

After actor John Cena appeared nearly nude at the Oscars last Sunday during a joke with host Jimmy Kimmel, fringe-right and QAnon figures claimed that Cena was taking part in a “humiliation ritual” at the behest of “Hollywood pedophiles.” Far-right figures have previously claimed that male celebrities are taking part in these “humiliation rituals” for the “Illuminati” by wearing feminine clothing during public performances.

Here’s how fringe far-right and QAnon figures are discussing Cena’s Oscars appearance:

• Bigoted far-right commentator Stew Peters posted: “Gay Oscar stunt was HUMILIATION RITUAL: John Cena INITIATED Into HOMO Hollywood.”
• QAnon influencer John Sabal posted: “At the satanic Oscars they made John Cena come out totally NUDE with nothing but a paper card covering his private area. This is called a HUMILIATION RITUAL.”
• Misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate claimed that the stunt was Cena “doing his humiliation ritual to satisfy his gay pay masters.”

In case you missed it

• Major news outlets that ran dozens of stories hyping then-special counsel Robert Hur’s claim that President Joe Biden evinced a “poor memory” during their interview are now acknowledging that Hur’s depiction was exaggerated after reviewing the newly released transcript.
• Violent crime is at one of its lowest levels since 1950, but Fox News has consistently downplayed and disputed these statistics.
• As Haiti faces a mounting humanitarian crisis, right-wing media figures are defending Trump’s 2018 comment calling the country a “shithole.”
• Grocery inflation was flat last month, but Fox News has continued to hammer Biden on increased grocery prices during his administration.
• Rumble streamer Nick Fuentes, who dined with Trump in 2022, said he doesn’t “buy” that the Nazis used gas chambers.
• Fox News is falsely claiming that Biden apologized to Laken Riley’s alleged killer.
• The Republican nominee for North Carolina’s state superintendent of public instruction, Michele Morrow, frequently promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory. She also suggested that actor Jim Carrey drinks the blood of children.
• In 2023, most mainstream TV news coverage of anti-trans violence hit an all-time low. Fox News’ attacks, meanwhile, hit an all-time high.
• Media Matters’ Bobby Lewis explains how pro-Trump media try to square the circle of supporting Trump and hating COVID vaccines.
• Right-wing media are reviving the false claim that Trump authorized 10,000 National Guard troops for January 6.
• Students for Life of America promoted the debunked claim that medication abortion is polluting wastewater.
• Several viral right-wing homesteading and farming influencers are pushing anti-immigrant conspiracy theories and demonizing migrants to their hundreds of thousands of followers across social media.
• Right-wing “manosphere” influencers are embracing Nazism and defending Adolf Hitler.