Progressive political activist and host of The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, decided to publicly debate conservative editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, at Politicon on Sunday.

Nearly 3,000 people packed the auditorium to watch the ideological opposites debate health care, taxes, the media and the economy, among other topics.

Both Uygur and Shapiro faced boos and cheers throughout the night, though the latter appeared to have a much more passionate support from the audience.

During an exchange on taxes flagged by Red Alert Politics, Uygur drew boos from the crowd when he made what conservatives see as the standard, ridiculous progressive argument that higher taxes are good for the economy.

Uygur cited the top rate of 91% in the late 1950’s as a gauge for supporting his philosophy.

Shapiro pushed back, asking, “Why not just tax everybody at 100% and we’ll have massive growth from here to eternity?”

After some moans echoed through the audience when Uygur seemed to walk back his 91% tax rate statement, Uygur resorted to insulting who he seemed to believe were his intellectual inferiors in the crowd.

“Guys, try to follow along,” he said. “It’s called logic.”

Apparently unsatisfied with the level of taunts hurled at the audience, Uygur added another slight for good measure.

“If you’re uneducated, please at least don’t make it obvious,” he professed in a joking yet smug manner.

According to Uygur’s logic, if you don’t want to give the overwhelming bulk of your money to the government, you may not only lack compassion, but you aren’t very smart either.

You can watch the full debate above (the relevant part starts at the 25:45 mark), via YouTube.

[image via screengrab]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.