'Wokeness is destroying America,' conservative Ben Shapiro tells Florida State crowd

Ben Shapiro, the right-wing pundit, told a sold-out Florida State University crowd Monday that "wokeness" is destroying the country before taking aim at critical race theory and other cultural pressure points.

The 7 p.m. event in the Tucker Civic Center's Exhibition Hall drew a small crowd of protesters who gathered outside the venue with signs and a megaphone hours before its start.

The free speaking engagement was put on by the College Republicans at FSU and FSU’s Institute of Politics in collaboration with the conservative youth organization Young America’s Foundation (YAF).

Worked up about 'wokeness'

Shapiro, the former editor of Breitbart and the current host of The Ben Shapiro Show, centered his opening speech on his viewpoint that "wokeness is destroying America."

According to Shapiro, the word defined by Cambridge Dictionary as "the state of being aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality," is dismantling the nation by spreading "four lies" about the nature of the United States, inequality, responsibility and truth.

"If wokeness wins, it destroys the country," he told the 1,500-seat audience, the majority of whom were white, young men. "If wokeness loses, maybe we find our way back."

The free event was funded largely by YAF, which since 2013 has hosted 50 speaking engagements featuring Shapiro, the founder of the conservative news website The Daily Wire.

YAF spokesperson Kara Zupkus declined to divulge how much Shapiro was paid for his appearance.

Soon after the event's announcement, Democratic groups on campus, including Students for a Democratic Society and Students (SDS) for Justice in Palestine, called upon FSU President Richard McCullough to cancel it.

"SDS condemns the university's decision to allow Ben Shapiro to spread reactionary propaganda on campus," statement from the SDS said.

"President McCullough claims to care about equality, diversity, and inclusion. If this is true he should have no problem fulfilling the demands of Students for a Democratic Society: Do not allow Ben Shapiro to appear on FSU's campus."

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Protesters outnumbered

In the moments leading up the auditorium's opening, a group of less than 25 protesters formed near the thousands eagerly awaiting to hear the conservative thought leader.

Most of the demonstrators, who were holding signs reading "Free Palestine" and "Go home fascist," were members of Students for Justice in Palestine.

John Ocampo, president of the organization, said he and members protested the event because Shapiro, who is Jewish, has and continues to disparage Palestinian and Arab people.

Ocampo pointed directly to Shapiro's 2010 tweet reading, "Israelis like to build. Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage. This is not a difficult issue. #settlementsrock."

When Shapiro took the stage, he did the FSU tomahawk chop motion. Shapiro quickly acknowledged that the gesture, used by other sports groups like the Atlanta Braves, has come under scrutiny as disrespecting Native Americans.

"When people say that's a racist thing, I have to say, if people just went to a stadium and started cheering for the Jews, do you know how happy I'd be?" Shapiro said.

After 20 minutes of remarks, he turned the microphone to the audience for questions.

The main attraction: Q&A time with Ben Shapiro

This is the reason many showed up: Some wanted to see Shapiro "intellectually destroy" students, as one put it, and others wanted to challenge him with a question and a likely ensuing quarrel.

At the microphone, one young man even addressed this directly, saying, "I really don't want to be the college student destroyed by Ben Shapiro," after struggling to collect his thoughts.

Questions ranged from critical race theory and the free market to whether or not Shapiro was actually 5-feet-9-inches tall.

Another person asked Shapiro about the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who shot three men and killed two during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020.

"Rittenhouse should be acquitted. He clearly acted in self-defense," he said, leading the crowd to erupt in cheers.

Shapiro went on to 10 answered questions and an hour without interruption or heckles.

"I thought it went amazing," Zupkus said after the event. "We're really glad to see that people who disagree came out for the Q&A. We want to foster intellectual debate on campus."

She added that YAF will look to work with FSU College Republicans in the future.

Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Ben Shapiro speaks at sold-out FSU event