On Monday, March 12, people gathered to watch conservative Guy Benson (Townhall Media & Fox News) and liberal Dylan Marron (Conversations With People Who Hate Me podcast) sit down and have a civil discussion about their differences. In a time when the political divide seems wider than ever, it may be unexpected for these two to sit down and hash it out respectfully, but that’s what happened.
The two speakers had compiled a slideshow, starting with the work each of them has done. Benson is the Political Editor of Townhall.com and a contributor to Fox News. Marron is the creator and host of a number of YouTube series (“Every Single Word,” “Unboxing,” “Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People”) and hosts a podcast called “Conversations With People Who Hate Me.” They made it clear upfront that this would not be a debate, but rather a meeting of minds; they don’t agree on many things, but feel it’s important to listen to those who disagree.
The next part of the session involved them each talking about the hateful messages they receive online, both from the political right and left. While the trolling differed for each of them, they could find common ground in people using slurs and other hate speech against them.
Guy Benson is a conservative who was/is opposed to Trump & often gets pushback from Trump supporters, especially for his homosexuality #SXSW pic.twitter.com/9YHiGAIOj4
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
Marron and Benson then discussed what popular political terms mean to each of them: identity politics, trigger warnings, microaggressions and more. It was interesting to see how a single phrase could mean vastly different things to people on opposite sides of the political aisle, which may shine a light on why discourse is often so heated these days.
“Identity politics” to @guypbenson is a form of tribalism where dissenters are shamed
To @dylanmarron they’re an inescapable truth when identities are legislated against#SXSW
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
They wrapped up the session by talking about the things they’re working on or have completed. For Marron, that’s his podcast and all of his ongoing video series. For Benson, that’s the book he co-authored with Mary Katharine Ham, “End of Conversation: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun).” Don’t worry, he joked about the ridiculously long subtitle during the session too.
Conservative books have to have a short, snappy title & a very long subtitle (The Ann Coulter Act of 1994) according to Guy Benson #SXSW
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
To view more of the conversation, which we live-tweeted, check it out below!
First up, @dylanmarron explains the term “cuck” #SXSW
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
Guy Benson says the way to tell @dylanmarron disagrees with you is when he says, “I affirm your feelings.” #SXSW
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
.@guypbenson does not view his conservatism and his gayness as fundamentally opposing each other #SXSW
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
A wonderful tangent about how The Great British Bake-Off might be the great uniter #SXSW @guypbenson @dylanmarron pic.twitter.com/y9sUAgWJWl
— Shuffle Online (@shuffleonline) March 12, 2018
Stay tuned for more SXSW interviews, recaps and reviews here!
Originally hailing from Pennsylvania, Jackie has called Austin home since choosing to attend the University of Texas, where she graduated with a degree in multimedia journalism. She loves spending time with her dogs, writing about pop culture in all its forms and spending time with friends – eating, drinking and doing trivia.