Ben Shapiro Mocks Sarah Silverman Over Mistaken Swastika Spotting
Ben Shapiro took aim at comedian Sarah Silverman on Monday, mocking her for mistaking construction signs for badly drawn swastikas.
“Sarah Silverman is one of the dumbest human beings on planet Earth. She’s this comedienne who’s made her fortune from basically doing the little girl voice and saying super dirty things,” he said in a monologue on his podcast. “She also happens to be an absolute dumb-ass around politics.”
Silverman tweeted an image Sunday showing two orange scrawlings on a sidewalk that were S-shaped and that she thought might resemble swastikas. It turned out they were common scribblings left on the concrete to help utility workers do their jobs.
Walking to get coffee saw these all over a sidewalk in the town I’m in. Is this an attempt at swastikas? Do neo nazis not have google? pic.twitter.com/A4ses1G3ru
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 12, 2017
“It’s hard enough to fight anti-Semitism without people making up instances of anti-Semitism to fight,” Shapiro fumed. The right-wing pundit appears to take particular relish in targeting left-wing comedians, having previously attacked Amy Schumer, Timothy Noah, Samantha Bee and Lena Dunham (whom he has referred to as a “potato”).
Silverman apologized for her mistake, and explained that she was prone to interpret the sign as anti-Semitic due to constant trolling against her for being Jewish.
It’s a construction marker. Innocent mistake for a Jew that gets “burn in an oven!” at least weekly on twitter. Still pretty close though.. pic.twitter.com/8Gsuy3QkuE
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 13, 2017
To be sure, vandals often do struggle to draw their swastikas correctly; the Forward has documented a number of ineptly executed graffiti during the post-election surge in hate crime.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO