Social media has spent the last day relentlessly dragging Matt Gaetz, who has spent the last handful of months being investigated over an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old. But they took a break because Ben Shapiro said something. The far right commentator and incorrigible speed-talker weighed in on the controversial election laws recently passed by Georgia Republicans, which have been seen as blatant attempt to suppress Democratic votes. He, of course, didn’t think they were a big deal, even bizarrely comparing infamously long Election Day lines to waiting on rides at Disneyland.
Ben Shapiro: “Voter suppression doesn’t involve long lines, any more than long lines at Disneyland are ride suppression” pic.twitter.com/c1ewUqenre
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 31, 2021
On his Daily Wire show, Shapiro laid into critics of the laws, which has included such high profile figures as Tyler Perry, Mark Hamill, even Delta Airlines. Shapiro brushed off each critique, but paused when he got to the issue of long voting lines, which were frequently documented during November’s election and which sometimes see voters waiting more than 10 hours just to cast a ballot.
More than 10 hours? Big deal, thought Shapiro. “Voter suppression doesn’t involve long lines, any more than long lines at Disneyland are ride suppression,” he averred.
Shapiro, of course, didn’t even allude to the epic length of some voting lines. So some people reminded him.
nobody would wait in a 10-hour line in disneyland, ben shapiro pic.twitter.com/qSBs1suBvC
— Bes D. Socialist (@besf0rt) March 31, 2021
Others pointed out that he was employing one of the most popular argumentative tricks among conservatives: create a false equivalency.
Disneyland: “I’m on vacation! I can wait as long as I want to!”
Polling place: “GOP fights today being a holiday. I have work. I’m a minimum wage empoloyee. If I’m not at work in an hour, I’m fired. (hour passes) I have to leave. I cant vote.”
Ben Shapiro is willfully dishonest https://t.co/ySmydZuvel
— Kurt “Masks Save Lives” Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 31, 2021
(sneaks into ben shapiro’s house in the middle of the night, stands above his bed holding the world’s largest bullhorn)
RIDING RIDES AT DISNEYLAND ISN’T A FUNDAMENTAL TENET OF DEMOCRACY YOU REPULSIVE ASS-MAGGOT https://t.co/2MidyodbFr
— Dr. Teeth and the Multiverse of Mayhem (@tonygoldmark) March 31, 2021
ahhh yes, Disneyland, where I famously go on a very specific day on my lunch break to exercise my constitutional right to ride Space Mountain. https://t.co/cPTu3Cdrlm
— Matt Largey (@mattlargey) March 31, 2021
Remember kids, your right to vote is no more important than riding Space Mountain but if anybody wants you to wait a week to buy a gun YOU ARE BEING OPPRESSED. pic.twitter.com/sib8PfGQC7
— Tara (@tara_atrandom) March 31, 2021
And just to be clear, even though voting is a fundamental right in a democracy in a way that riding Space Mountain isn’t…if Disneyland rides used a system that made Black people wait 6x longer than white people, then yes, that should be stopped.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) March 31, 2021
I like Space Mountain. I might not get on the ride if I have to wait 3 hours in line. But Space Mountain isn’t the means to the Preservation of a liberal Democracy. https://t.co/DtvoHLk98j
— Jules Salinas (@thedoctorjulio) March 31, 2021
People cracked other holes in his logic.
Disneyland *famously* sells passes that let you skip the lines, how did this analogy escape the writers room https://t.co/h70wpUWcfb
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 31, 2021
Who wants to tell Ben Shapiro you could ride Space Mountain 8 times before you could get to vote in Georgia? https://t.co/FHORgnKyfE
— Brittany for Congress (@Britt4Congress) March 31, 2021
Some mocked him doing an “Ayone? Bueller? Bueller?” while recording a podcast in a room by himself.
Ben Shapiro daring an empty room to contradict him about a manifestly stupid assertion (“Anybody? Anybody?”) and then feeling vindicated when it doesn’t is conservative discourse circa 2021 in a nutshell. https://t.co/R9V8uGrqwC
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) March 31, 2021
And there were plenty of height jokes, which fair enough. (He’s claimed he’s 5’9, which he definitely is not.)
You’re laughing? Ben Shapiro isn’t even tall enough to get on the rides at Disneyland and you’re laughing? pic.twitter.com/zUrObhrHAJ
— In My Mind (@MeAloneInMyMind) March 31, 2021
Ben Shapiro doesn’t think the lines at Disney World are that bad but that’s only because he’s not tall enough to wait in the Space Mountain one
— Aaron (@BobbyBigWheel) March 31, 2021
Ben Shapiro knows what real “ride suppression” looks like pic.twitter.com/fYlCF1G8HR
— Stan Denshaw burner (@OptometristDan) March 31, 2021
Ben isn’t allowed to ride Space Mountain because of the min height requirement https://t.co/L6N3NCq7xt
— Will Menaker (@willmenaker) March 31, 2021
And there were other jokes.
Of course Ben Shapiro is all for handing out water in the voting lines being illegal. Dude isn’t known for providing moisture. Ask his wife.
— DeathMetalViking (@DeathMetalV) March 31, 2021
And there were some who resented the idea of every month or so having to remember the existence of Ben Shapiro.
One of the worst parts of the modern world is having to learn who Ben Shapiro is once every 14 weeks
— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) March 31, 2021