Ben Shapiro says, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” He even wrote two books with that title. Ben Shapiro is a mainstream conservative podcaster and influencer with one of the most popular shows on the Internet. He seems grossly competent, and grossly arrogant. “Ben Shapiro destroys” is a subgenre in itself on YouTube.

As he wields statistics, convictions, history, cognitive arguments, and facts against his opponents, there’s something dislikeable about him. He definitely doesn’t seem to care about being liked. Because, Ben Shapiro doesn’t care about your feelings, so your feelings do not want to care about his facts.

The reality is, things aren’t black and white. Facts and statistics don’t tell the entire story. Shapiro seems to be discounting that his opponents feel hurt when people refuse to see their version of the facts, and that’s not compassionate. Feelings still matter. Feelings can hijack choice.

When one looks out across the population, there are a lot of feelings out there. Underneath the negative feelings, there is always trauma. Trauma is what happens inside when a negative experience occurs, especially during childhood. People today are anxious, depressed, hurt, afraid, angry, unwell… traumatized. This human experience can be rough.

Negative emotions are not necessary a bad thing. They are signals that help us process fear and danger. However, our feelings need to integrate with facts. We still don’t know what we don’t know. “I know” is one of the most dangerous statements in the world. Our individual and collective trauma needs to be healed, and exploring and integrating the negative emotions are a map.

Feelings and facts need to care about each other. Being aware of each other is a start.