Common Sense from a Politician
by tristero
Ocasio-Cortez did exactly the right thing:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old democratic socialist from New York who scored a shocking primary victory over Representative Joseph Crowley in June, has since become a lightning rod for attacks from conservative circles.
The conservative scrutiny on Ms. Ocasio-Cortez took a strange turn this week when a popular conservative commentator and speaker, Ben Shapiro, challenged Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to a debate and offered to pay her campaign $10,000 in return.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who trounced Mr. Crowley, a longtime and powerful member of Congress from Queens, likened the offer to catcalling — the practice of whistling or making unwanted comments to women who pass by on the street.
In a Twitter post on Thursday night, she roundly rejected his proposal. “I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions,” she said. “And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one.”
You have to look at this way. When he was alive Stephen Jay Gould never debated the shape of Earth with a flat-earther. Why? Because a flat-earther has nothing intelligent to add to any serious scientific discussion. It would be a waste of Gould's time. Likewise, it's a waste of Ocasio-Cortez's time to bother talking to someone like Shapiro.
I hope she continues to refuse. Ocasio-Cortez can, should, and will, debate many women and men who have intelligent things to say about tackling the numerous problems this country's people face. Shapiro is not among them and I hope she continues to refuse.
By the way, note the snarky tone of the article. I omitted the lede, which was simply stupid. And the article implies that Ocasio-Cortez starts "Twitter tussles."
By contrast, the article noted Shapiro's Harvard Law degree and his religiosity but failed to note his transphobia, his homophobia, his support of tax cuts for the rich, his opposition to reproductive rights, his opposition to Social Security, and to health care, all of which are reported here. And note how kind that article is to Shapiro (money quote: "He takes apart arguments in ways that makes the conservative conclusion seem utterly logical, like putting a key in a locked door." ). Dollars to donuts, we'll never see such a one-sided profile by the Times on Ocasio-Cortez.