The Authoritarian Moment

by Ben Shapiro

  33.Abigail Shrier, “Amazon Enforces ‘Trans’ Orthodox,” WSJ.com, June 22, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-enforces-trans-orthodoxy-11592865818.

  34.Abigail Shrier, “Does the ACLU Want to Ban My Book?,” WSJ.com, November 15, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-the-aclu-want-to-ban-my-book-11605475898.

  35.Kathleen Doheny, “Boy or Girl? Fetal DNA Tests Often Spot On,” WebMD.com, August 9, 2011, https://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20110809/will-it-be-a-boy-or-girl-fetal-dna-tests-often-spot-on#1.

  36.“AMA Adopts New Policies at 2018 Interim Meeting,” AMA-Assn.org, November 13, 2018, https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-adopts-new-policies-2018-interim-meeting.

  37.“AMA Adopts New Policies During First Day of Voting at Interim Meeting,” American Medical Association, November 19, 2019, https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-adopts-new-policies-during-first-day-voting-interim-meeting.

  38.Vadim M. Shteyler, M.D., Jessica A. Clarke, J.D., and Eli Y. Adashi, M.D., “Failed Assignments—Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates,” NEJM.org, December 17, 2020, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2025974.

  39.Lawrence Krauss, “The Ideological Corruption of Science,” WSJ.com, July 12, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ideological-corruption-of-science-11594572501?mod=article_inline.

  40.“An Open Letter to the Communications of the ACM,” December 29, 2020, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KM6yc416Gh1wue92DHReoyZqheIaIM23fkz0KwOpkw/edit.

  41.“Yann LeCun Quits Twitter Amid Acrimonious Exchanges on AI Bias,” SyncedReview.com, June 30, 2020, https://syncedreview.com/2020/06/30/yann-lecun-quits-twitter-amid-acrimonious-exchanges-on-ai-bias/.

  42.Bridget Balch, “Curing health care of racism: Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ibram X. Kendi, PhD, call on institutions to foster change,” AAMC.org, November 17, 2020, https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/curing-health-care-racism-nikole-hannah-jones-and-ibram-x-kendi-phd-call-institutions-foster-change.

  43.Heather Mac Donald, “How Identity Politics Is Harming the Sciences,” City-Journal.org, Spring 2018, https://www.city-journal.org/html/how-identity-politics-harming-sciences-15826.html.

  44.Philip Ball, “Prejudice persists,” ChemistryWorld.com, June 9, 2020, https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/viewing-science-as-a-meritocracy-allows-prejudice-to-persist/4011923.article.

  45.Katrina Kramer, “Angewandte essay calling diversity in chemistry harmful decried as ‘abhorrent,’ ‘egregious,’” ChemistryWorld.com, June 9, 2020, https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/angewandte-essay-calling-diversity-in-chemistry-harmful-decried-as-abhorrent-and-egregious/4011926.article.

  46.Editors, “Scientific American Endorses Joe Biden,” Scientific American, October 1, 2020, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden1/.

  47.Editorial, “Why Nature supports Joe Biden for US president,” Nature.com, October 14, 2020, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02852-x?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=organic&utm_campaign=NGMT_USG_JC01_GL_Nature.

  48.Editors, “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,” New England Journal of Medicine, October 8, 2020, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812.

  CHAPTER 5: YOUR AUTHORITARIAN BOSS

  1.Alma Cohen, Moshe Hazan, Roberto Tallarita, and David Weiss, “The Politics of CEOs,” National Bureau of Economic Research, May 2019, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25815/w25815.pdf.

  2.Doug McMillon, “Advancing Our Work on Racial Equity,” Walmart.com, June 12, 2020, https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/06/12/advancing-our-work-on-racial-equity.

  3.Rachel Lerman and Todd C. Frenkel, “Retailers and restaurants across the US close their doors amid protests,” WashingtonPost.com, June 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/01/retailers-restaurants-across-us-close-their-doors-amid-protests/.

  4.Tim Cook, “Speaking up on racism,” Apple.com, https://www.apple.com/speaking-up-on-racism/.

  5.Mitchell Schnurman, “‘Silence is not an option’: What CEOs are saying about racial violence in America,” DallasNews.com, June 7, 2020, https://www.dallasnews.com/business/commentary/2020/06/07/silence-is-not-an-option-what-ceos-are-saying-about-racial-violence-in-america/.

  6.“Addressing racial injustice,” Microsoft.com, June 23, 2020, https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/06/23/addressing-racial-injustice/.

  7.Joseph Guzman, “Netflix pledges $100 million to support Black communities in the US,” Thehill.com, June 30, 2020, https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/505229-netflix-pledges-100-million-to-support-black-communities-in.

  8.Mitchell Schnurman, “‘Silence is not an option’: What CEOs are saying about racial violence in America,” DallasNews.com, June 7, 2020, https://www.dallasnews.com/business/commentary/2020/06/07/silence-is-not-an-option-what-ceos-are-saying-about-racial-violence-in-america/.

  9.https://twitter.com/gushers/status/1269110304086114304.

  10.Katie Canales, “A ‘handful’ of Cisco employees were fired after posting offensive comments objecting to the company’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement,” BusinessInsider.com, July 17, 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/cisco-employees-fired-racist-comments-black-lives-matter-2020-7.

  11.Associated Press, “Sacramento Kings broadcaster Grant Napear fired after ‘all lives matter’ tweet,” DetroitNews.com, June 3, 2020, https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2020/06/03/sacramento-kings-broadcaster-grant-napear-out-after-all-lives-matter-tweet/3132629001/.

  12.Vandana Rambaran, “Dean fired after saying ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER, but also, EVERYONE’S LIFE MATTERS’ in email,” FoxNews.com, July 2, 2020, https://www.foxnews.com/us/dean-fired-after-saying-black-lives-matter-but-also-everyones-life-matters-in-email.

  13.Dunja Djudjic, “B&H Employee ‘removed’ after publicly opposing Black Lives Matter movement,” DIYPhotography.net, June 11, 2020, https://www.diyphotography.net/bh-employee-removed-after-publicly-opposing-black-lives-matter-movement/.

  14.Jemimi McEvoy, “Every CEO and Leader That Stepped Down Since Black Lives Matter Protests Began,” Forbes.com, July 1, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/07/01/every-ceo-and-leader-that-stepped-down-since-black-lives-matter-protests-began/?sh=595688765593.

  15.Brad Polumbo, ‘Is Black Lives Matter Marxist? No and Yes,” FEE.org, July 7, 2020, https://fee.org/articles/is-black-lives-matter-marxist-no-and-yes/.

  16.Alyssa Newcomb, “How to delete old tweets before they come back to haunt you,” NBCNews.com, August 3, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-delete-old-tweets-they-come-back-haunt-you-n896546.

  17.Christopher Caldwell, The Age of Entitlement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020), 169.

  18.“#BrandsGetReal: What consumers want from brands in a divided society,” SproutSocial.com, November 2018, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/social-media-connection/.

  19.James R. Bailey and Hillary Phillips, “How Do Consumers Feel When Companies Get Political?,” HBR.org, February 17, 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/02/how-do-consumers-feel-when-companies-get-political.

  20.Alexander Osipovich and Akane Otani, “Nasdaq Seeks Board-Diversity Rule That Most Listed Firms Don’t Meet,” WSJ.com, December 1, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/nasdaq-proposes-board-diversity-rule-for-listed-companies-11606829244.

  21.Klaus Schwab, “A Better Economy Is Possible. But We Need to Reimagine Capitalism to Do It,” Time.com, October 22, 2020, https://time.com/collection/great-reset/5900748/klaus-schwab-capitalism/.

  22.Jesse Pound, “Biden says investors ‘don’t need me,’ calls for end of ‘era of shareholder capitalism,’” CNBC.com, July 9, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/09/biden-says-investors-dont-need-me-calls-for-end-of-era-of-shareholder-capitalism.html.

  23.Biz Carson, “Expensify’s CEO emailed users to encourage them to ‘vote for Biden,’” Protocol.com, October 22, 2020, https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/expensifys-ceo-emailed-all-o
f-his-users-to-encourage-them-to-protect-democracy-vote-for-biden.

  24.Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018).

  25.Benjamin Zeisloft, “UConn agrees to pay ‘White Fragility’ author $20k for 3.5 hour anti-racism lecture,” CampusReform.org, August 12, 2019, https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15430.

  26.Edward H. Chang et al., “Does Diversity Training Work the Way It’s Supposed To?,” Harvard Business Review, July 9, 2019, https://hbr.org/2019/07/does-diversity-training-work-the-way-its-supposed-to.

  27.Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, “Why Diversity Programs Fail,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2016, https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail.

  28.Pamela Newkirk, “Diversity Has Become a Booming Business. So Where Are the Results?,” Time.com, October 19, 2019, https://time.com/5696943/diversity-business/.

  29.Emily Heil, “The Goya boycott could impact the brand, experts say—just not the way you think,” WashingtonPost.com, July 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/07/28/the-goya-boycott-could-impact-the-brand-experts-say-just-not-the-way-you-think/.

  30.Meera Jagannathan, “Equinox could experience lasting damage from the anti-Trump boycott, despite other companies escaping unscathed,” Marketwatch.com, August 14, 2019, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/equinox-could-experience-lasting-damage-from-the-anti-trump-boycott-while-other-companies-have-escaped-unscathed-2019-08-13.

  31.Steven Overly and Laura Kayali, “The moment of reckoning for the Facebook advertiser boycott,” Politico.com, July 29, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/29/facebook-advertiser-boycott-zuckerberg-385622.

  32.“Do Boycotts Work?,” Northwestern Institute for Policy Research, March 28, 2017, https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/news/2017/king-corporate-boycotts.html.

  33.Noorie Malik, “New Consumer Alert on Yelp Takes Firm Stance Against Racism,” Yelp.com, October 8, 2020, https://blog.yelp.com/2020/10/new-consumer-alert-on-yelp-takes-firm-stance-against-racism.

  34.Emery P. Dalesio and Jonathan Drew, “Exclusive: ‘Bathroom bill’ to cost North Carolina $3.75B,” APNews.com, March 30, 2017, https://apnews.com/article/e6c7a15d2e16452c8dcbc2756fd67b44.

  35.Peter O’Dowd, “Cities, Businesses Boycott Arizona Over New Law,” NPR.org, May 4, 2010, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126486651.

  36.Lisa Richwine, “Disney CEO says it will be ‘difficult’ to film in Georgia if abortion law takes effect,” Reuters.com, May 29, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-abortion-walt-disney-exclusive/disney-ceo-says-it-will-be-difficult-to-film-in-georgia-if-abortion-law-takes-effect-idUSKCN1T003X.

  37.Kevin Dugan, “Credit cards are clamping down on payments to hate groups,” NYPost.com, August 16, 2017, https://nypost.com/2017/08/16/credit-cards-are-clamping-down-on-payments-to-hate-groups/.

  38.Associated Press, “First National Bank of Omaha drops NRA credit card,” CBSNews.com, February 22, 2018, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/first-national-bank-of-omaha-drops-nra-credit-card/.

  39.Chase Purdy, “Even America’s worst airline couldn’t stomach the National Rifle Association,” QZ.com, February 24, 2018, https://qz.com/1215137/the-nra-loses-the-support-of-united-americas-most-hated-legacy-airline/.

  40.Zachary Warmbrodt, “GOP split as banks take on gun industry,” Politico.com, April 22, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/22/banks-guns-industry-gop-split-544739.

  41.John Aidan Byrne, “JPMorgan Chase accused of purging accounts of conservative activists,” NYPost.com, May 25, 2019, https://nypost.com/2019/05/25/jpmorgan-chase-accused-of-purging-accounts-of-conservative-activists/.

  42.Dana Loesch,” Mailchimp Deplatforming a Local Tea Party Is a Hallmark of Fascism,” Federalist.com, December 16, 2020, https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/16/mailchimp-deplatforming-a-local-tea-party-is-a-hallmark-of-fascism/.

  43.Caleb Parke, “Conservatives call for PayPal boycott after CEO says Southern Poverty Law Center helps ban users,” FoxNews.com, February 28, 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/tech/conservatives-call-for-paypal-boycott-after-ceo-admits-splc-helps-ban-users.

  44.“US businesses cut Republican party donations in wake of riot,” DW.com, https://www.dw.com/en/us-businesses-cut-republican-party-donations-in-wake-of-riot/a-56189263.

  45.Theo Francis, “Why You Probably Work for a Giant Company, in 20 Charts,” WSJ.com, April 6, 2017, https://www.wsj.com/graphics/big-companies-get-bigger/.

  46.Austan Goolsbee, “Big Companies Are Starting to Swallow the World,” NYTimes.com, September 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/business/big-companies-are-starting-to-swallow-the-world.html.

  CHAPTER 6: THE RADICALIZATION OF ENTERTAINMENT

  1.“Academy Establishes Representation and Inclusion Standards for Oscars Eligibility,” Oscars.org, September 8, 2020, https://www.oscars.org/news/academy-establishes-representation-and-inclusion-standards-oscarsr-eligibility.

  2.Reggie Ugwu, “The Hashtag That Changed the Oscars: An Oral History,” NYTimes.com, February 6, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/movies/oscarssowhite-history.html.

  3.Anna North, “#MeToo at the 2018 Oscars: The good, the bad, and the in between,” Vox.com, March 5, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/3/5/17079702/2018-oscars-me-too-times-up-frances-mcdormand-jimmy-kimmel.

  4.Casey Newton, “How Kevin Hart tweeted himself out of a job hosting the Oscars,” TheVerge.com, December 8, 2018, https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/8/18131221/kevin-hart-oscar-hosting-homophobia-twitter-tweets.

  5.Stephen Daw, “A Complete Timeline of Kevin Hart’s Oscar-Hosting Controversy, from Tweets to Apologies,” Billboard.com, January 13, 2020, https://www.billboard.com/articles/events/oscars/8492982/kevin-hart-oscar-hosting-controversy-timeline.

  6.Ben Shapiro, Primetime Propaganda (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 71.

  7.“The Motion Picture Production Code (as Published 31 March, 1930),” https://www.asu.edu/courses/fms200s/total-readings/MotionPictureProductionCode.pdf.

  8.Ben Shapiro, Primetime Propaganda (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 59.

  9.Ibid., 62.

  10.Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 235–37.

  11.Jim Rutenberg, “How to Write TV in the Age of Trump: Showrunners Reveal All,” NYTimes.com, April 12, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/arts/television/political-tv-in-age-of-trump-shonda-rhimes-scandal-veep-madame-secretary-house-of-cards-hbo.html?_r=0].

  12.Elaine Low, “Disney Plus Subscribers Surpass 73 Million as of October,” Variety.com, November 12, 2020, https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/disney-plus-subscribers-surpass-73-million-subscribers-as-of-october-1234830555/.

  13.“The Nielsen Total Audience Report: August 2020,” Nielsen.com, August 13, 2020, https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/report/2020/the-nielsen-total-audience-report-august-2020/.

  14.John Koblin, “The Obamas and Netflix Just Revealed the Shows and Films They’re Working On,” NYTimes.com, April 30, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/business/media/obama-netflix-shows.html.

  15.Todd Spangler, “Susan Rice Will Leave Netflix Board to Join Biden Administration,” Variety.com, December 10, 2020, https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/susan-rice-exits-netflix-board-biden-administration-1234850756/.

  16.Ari Levy, “The most liberal and conservative tech companies, ranked by employees’ political donations,” CNBC.com, July 2, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/most-liberal-tech-companies-ranked-by-employee-donations.html.

  17.Megan Graham, “Netflix says it will rethink its investment in Georgia if ‘heartbeat’ abortion law goes into effect,” CNBC.com, May 28, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/netflix-would-rethink-investment-in-georgia-if-abortion-law-stands.html.

  18.Sherisse Pham, “Netflix finally finds a way into China,” CNN.com, May 3, 2017, https://money.cnn.com/2017/04/26/technology/netflix-china-baidu-iqiyi/.

  19.Lisa Richwine, “Disney CEO says it will be ‘difficult
’ to film in Georgia if abortion law takes effect,” Reuters.com, May 29, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-abortion-walt-disney-exclusive/disney-ceo-says-it-will-be-difficult-to-film-in-georgia-if-abortion-law-takes-effect-idUSKCN1T003X.

  20.Amy Qin and Edward Wong, “Why Calls to Boycott ‘Mulan’ Over Concerns About China Are Growing,” NYTimes.com, September 8, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/world/asia/china-mulan-xinjiang.html.

  21.Johanna Blakley et al., “Are You What You Watch?,” LearCenter.org, May 2019, https://learcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/are_you_what_you_watch.pdf.

  22.“GLAAD works with Hollywood to shape transgender stories and help cast trans actors,” GLAAD.org, May 12, 2020, https://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-works-hollywood-shape-transgender-stories-and-help-cast-trans-actors.

  23.Dave Nemetz, “The Office Edits Out Blackface Scene, Community Pulls Entire Episode,” TVLine.com, June 26, 2020, https://tvline.com/2020/06/26/the-office-community-blackface-cut-removed-streaming/.

  24.“Gone with the Wind removed from HBO Max,” BBC.com, June 10, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52990714.

  25.Samuel Gelman, “Disney+ Updates Offensive Content Disclaimer for Aladdin, Peter Pan and More,” CBR.com, October 15, 2020, https://www.cbr.com/disney-plus-update-disclaimer-aladdin-peter-pan/.

  26.“Cops TV series canceled after 31 years in wake of protests,” EW.com, June 9, 2020, https://ew.com/tv/cops-canceled/.

  27.Sarah Whitten, “‘Live P.D.’ canceled by A&E following report that the reality show filmed police custody death,” CNBC.com, June 11, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/11/live-pd-canceled-over-report-that-show-filmed-police-custody-death.html.

  28.“Scarlett Johansson quits trans role after LGBT backlash,” BBC.com, July 13, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44829766.