Conservative political commentator, author, columnist, radio talk show host, and lawyer Ben Shapiro is no dummy.

The 33-year-old Los Angeles native graduated early from high school, achieved summa cum laude from the University of California, and holds a Harvard Law degree. He started writing his first book, Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, when he was 17, and has published six books since. (What did you do during your twenties?)

From 2012 until spring 2016, Shapiro was editor-at-large of right-wing news outlet Breitbart News. But after Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields was manhandled by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Shapiro left Breitbart, disgusted by their lack of support for a colleague. By then he was already running his own politics site, The Daily Wire. Today, he is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show, the “largest conservative podcast in the nation,” and runs his own legal consultation firm, Ben Shapiro Legal Consulting.

A whip-smart overachiever, Shapiro rose to heightened levels of political fame in 2017. Passionate in support of libertarian principles (free speech, personal responsibility, separation of powers, small government), the West Coast conservative has become an icon to many thinkers tired of being denounced by those who elevate feelings above facts.

In the Trump world, Shapiro attempts to aid his listeners in analyzing American politics with a critical perspective, often urging them to tune in to left-leaning podcasts, like Pod Save America, to get both sides of the picture and find “truth” in the synthesis of opposing news sources. 

At this year’s Politicon conference, Shapiro debated leftist talk show host Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks, and the joust went viral. Shapiro mopped the floor with the outspoken liberal. “The battle between the identity politics of the left and the identity politics of the so-called alt-right is what is making the country a significantly worse place,” he said to a packed house at UC Berkeley in September. “It needs to stop now.”

The radical left calls Shapiro a threat, a neo-Nazi, and a white supremacist “in servitude to Trump and Pence” — this despite the fact that he didn’t vote for them (or Hillary Clinton).

His recent speech at Berkeley was so heavily protested it racked up $600K in security costs. A practicing and proud Orthodox Jew who criticizes the alt-right as much as he does the left and anti-fascists, Shapiro laughs at his protesters’ cartoon image of him. As for Berkeley administrators offering counseling sessions to those who felt threatened by his visit, Shapiro told HLN, “Honestly, if you need counseling because I am speaking, then you need psychiatric care anyway.”

At Berkeley he called for less broad-brushing: “We have stopped seeing each other as individuals… I am not a cardboard cutout for you to call a white supremacist. I am not a cardboard cutout for you to call a Nazi, and neither is anyone else in this room. Get to know people. Get to know their views. Discuss. Debate. That is what America is all about.” Shapiro added, “We are in a dark moment right now. But I think we can get to a brighter moment if we stop seeing each other as members of groups.”

Whether you love him or hate him, agree or vehemently disagree with his views on topics like abortion and immigration, Shapiro is having an impact on younger generations who simply want to debate political ideas again without being silenced. He champions critical thinking, individual freedom, and public discussion. And for that, we salute him.