Players kneel before the national anthem to protest systemic racism on Major League Baseball's opening night,

the Washington Redskins become the Washington football team, and Anthony Fauci throws out a first pitch

and makes sure that nobody catches anything. I'm Ben Shapiro. This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

This show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

Stop putting your online data at risk.

Get protected at ExpressVPN.com slash Ben.

Well, you know, I learned my lesson.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that when I watch sports,

I actually like to watch sports.

I know that sports are supposed to be a distraction from everyday life.

That's what the goal of sports is.

In fact, my friend Clay Travis, who hosts

over at Outkick the coverage and over at Fox News at Fox Sports, he pointed out on this show

that the word sport comes from disport, the word disport, which comes originally from Anglo-French,

which used to mean divert or to amuse. Literally it meant, in old French, to carry away the mind from serious matters. That's what sport was. Sport was a distraction. No longer, we have entered a new, woke world. And frankly, I'm really excited about it because here is what I want. Here's what I want for. I want more politics in sports. I've decided the time has come. I'm tired of all of this apolitical mumbo-jumbo where we all sort of get together and just have a good time and don't focus in on all the things that divide us. Now, I need everything to be divisive. I want every single thing to divide Americans. I want to turn on a baseball game. And the first thing I want to see is I want to see political platforms laid forth by every single player. I need to know what Yohan Moncada, the second baseman for the Chicago White Sox, I need to know what he, second and third base, he can trades off positions. And because he has two separate positions on the field, I need two separate policy platforms as well. I need to know what Yon Moncada thinks about the payroll tax. I need to know it.

And if I don't know it before the game starts, I'm just not going to watch the game. More than that, I need every single player to mouth platitudes about America and how much America sucks. I need them to at exactly the tone and tenor that I like. And if they don't, I'm not going to engage. I'm just not going to watch. I'm be so angry. I'm going to suggest that they are just not

socially conscious. And if they don't, I'm not going to engage. I'm just not going to watch. I'm being so angry. I'm going to suggest that they are just not socially conscious. And if anyone else says to me, you know, I just want sports to be a political, I know they're lying. I know they're lying. Because just by saying they want sports to be a political, they're being political, don't you see? Right. Isn't the national anthem political? Isn't the flag? Isn't everything political? I want

everything to be political. I am only, I pledge right here right now. I am only going to buy

HVAC parts from CEOs who agree with me politically. I am only going to be served by baristas

who mouth the slogans that I like. If somebody doesn't shout at me silence is violence, well handing me my chips and fish, I am simply not going to take. I'm going to slam that right down on the table and walk out of the restaurant. That is the way life is going to get better in this United States. We cannot have any sort of common areas that are apolitical because if we do, then we refuse to

acknowledge the evils that go along, that go on around us. Every area of American life must be

infused with the nastiness and polarization of American politics. And particularly, I want everybody

...