Ben Cohen moved to Vermont in 1977 and co-founded an ice cream company that bears his name, Ben and Jerry's.

They made great ice cream. They still do. Ben Cohen became famous for his liberal political activism.

The ice cream was great. His political opinions were deeply offensive to most conservatives.

Fast forward to 2022, and Ben Cohen was one of the only liberals in the United States

to come out against the war in Ukraine.

It seems like a good moment to pause and reconsider whether some of Ben Cohen's views on war

are maybe not insane. Maybe they're worth hearing. Here's Ben Cohen's views on war are maybe not insane.

Maybe they're worth hearing.

Here's Ben Cohen. So that you brought a book by Smedley-Darlington Butler, the most decorated Marina World War I. He's a Marine General. He won two

medals of honor. And he wrote a book called War is a racket. And for some reason, it's not the

most famous book ever written in English, but it probably should be. What is that? And why did you

bring it? Well, I've been kind of inspired by this

quote of his i i think he he encapsulates what's been going on in terms of how our military has been

used and you know he's been there done that that's for sure and i and i

think about it a lot in terms of you know all these uh refugees immigrants that are trying to get to the

u.s and why are they trying to get to the U.S.? A lot of times it's because the U.S. at some

point in history overthrew or invaded their government or, well, I'll tell you what Smedley says

here. Can I quote? Please. So he says, I'll tell you what Smedley says here. Can I quote?

Please.

So he says, I spent 33 years and four months in active military service, and during that period, I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street, and the bankers. Butler wrote in 1955. Now he goes on,

in short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico safe for American

oil interests. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for National City Bank Boys to collect revenues.

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