Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American lawyer, columnist, author, and conservative political commentator. Shapiro writes columns for Creators Syndicate, Newsweek, and Ami Magazine, and serves as editor emeritus for The Daily Wire, which he co-founded in 2015. Shapiro is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily political podcast and live radio show. He was editor-at-large of Breitbart News from 2012 until his resignation in 2016. Shapiro has authored sixteen books.
On social issues, Shapiro is a supporter of both private gun ownership and capital punishment, and believes that homosexuality should be classified as a mental illness. On women's health, he stated his belief that abortion should be outlawed even in cases of rape and incest, calling women who receive abortions "baby killers." Culturally Shapiro is supportive of what he identifies as "western culture" and a critic of what he sees as "identity politics" and leftism. On international politics, Shapiro is a defender of both the United States and Israel, often accusing those who criticise Israel of being antisemitic. Economically Shapiro has called for lowering taxes on wealthy people and privatising social security. On scientific issues, Shapiro opposes the introduction of COVID-19 mandates, and has been described by scientists as engaging in climate change denial. On racial issues, Shapiro has been critical of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and falsely claimed that George Floyd died of a drug overdose and that murderer Derek Chauvin was innocent.
Early life and education
Shapiro was born on January 15, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, to a Conservative Jewish family. He is Ashkenazi Jewish, of Russian-Jewish and Lithuanian-Jewish ancestry. When he was 9 years old, his family transitioned to Orthodox Judaism. He started playing violin at a young age and performed at the Israel Bonds Banquet in 1996 at 12 years of age. His parents both worked in Hollywood. His mother was a TV company executive, and his father, David Shapiro, worked as a composer.
Skipping two grades (third and ninth), Shapiro went from Walter Reed Middle School in The Valley to Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles in Westside, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 2000 at age 16. He then attended the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating in 2004 at age 20 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in political science and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Afterwards, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2007 with a J.D., cum laude.
Career
Law
After graduating law school, he then worked at the law offices of Goodwin Procter, but left after 10 months. , he ran an independent legal consultancy firm, Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting, in Los Angeles.
Author
Shapiro became interested in politics at a young age. He started a nationally syndicated column when he was 17, becoming the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States, and had written two books by age 21.
In his first book Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth (2004), Shapiro argues that the American Left has ideological dominance over universities and that professors do not tolerate non-left opinions.
In 2011, HarperCollins published Shapiro's fourth book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, in which Shapiro argues that Hollywood has a left-wing agenda that it actively promotes through prime-time entertainment programming. In the book, the producers of Happy Days and M*A*S*H say they pursued a pro-pacifist, anti-Vietnam-War agenda in those series. Shapiro also became a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
In 2013, Threshold Editions published Shapiro's fifth book, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans.
In 2017, he released his first and to date only fiction novel, True Allegiance.
In 2019, Shapiro published the book The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great, which focuses on the importance of Judaeo-Christian values and laments the decline of those values in modern America.
In 2021, Shapiro published the book The Authoritarian Moment, which argues that there is not a pressing authoritarian threat in U.S. politics from the right-wing. Rather, he argues that the authoritarian threat comes from the left's control of academia, Hollywood, journalism, and corporate America.
Breitbart News
In 2012, Shapiro became editor-at-large of Breitbart News, a website founded by Andrew Breitbart. After Breitbart fell under the leadership of Steve Bannon, Shapiro attempted to distance himself from him.