Milo Yiannopoulos and the Very Bad Failed Silencing by Mob Violence

THIS was done to SILENCE someone like me.

I’m sitting here stewing, my mind churning, unable to think about anything else but the way that Milo Yiannopoulos was SILENCED last night by VIOLENCE. “Protesters” (more properly called rioters) set fires, threw rocks, beat people with poles, and chanted heinous messages of killing and harm at UC Berkeley (“home” of the free speech movement), where Milo was scheduled to speak in a 500-seat auditorium. These students would not have been FORCED to listen to Milo. No, because freedom is important. Because choosing is important. They would have attended his event BY CHOICE.

And there was no purity test. You didn’t have to AGREE with him in order to hear him speak.

Who is he?

Why can’t people listen to him if they want to?

That choice was stolen from them by people bent on marginalizing EVERYONE on the Right. Bullying us into submission, into SILENCE. Dr. Tim Daughtry wrote in 2013, “The strategy (of the far-left) was one of immersion more than conversion. It was not necessary to convert students or consumers of news to leftist thinking; it was only necessary to surround them with liberalism as if there were no other respectable way of thinking.” Talk about fascists. The reasonable ones here, the ones with a “righteous” cause, are the violent ones.

During the UC Berkeley protest, rioters screamed “fuck the police”, “kill white babies”, “no justice no peace”, & “Milo, we coming for you”.

— Democrats for Trump (@YoungDems4Trump) February 2, 2017

Milo broadcast a live response last night from the safety of his hotel room, after being evacuated as soon as the trouble started. In it, he gives a spot-on analysis of political violence and the end of free speech in America. If you can’t speak freely here, where can you?

“The Progressive Left, the social justice Left, the feminist, Black Lives Matter, Antifa Left, the HARD Left, which has become so utterly antithetical to free speech in the last few years, is taking a turn, post Trump’s election, where they simply will not allow any speaker on campus, even somebody as silly and harmless and gay as me, to have their voice heard. They won’t allow students to listen to differing points of view. They’re absolutely petrified by alternative visions of how the world ought to look.”

Who’s afraid of the big, bad, Conservative speaker?

Conservative speakers are finding themselves not welcome on America’s college campuses. When they are cancelled from speaking at commencement, that usually makes big headlines. But they are also prevented from giving ordinary speeches, the kind that students can choose to attend as part of the myriad activities on campus. In February 2016, William Covino, president of California State University Los Angeles, cancelled Ben Shapiro‘s speech entitled “When Diversity Becomes a Problem.” He determined that Shapiro would only be permitted to speak as part of a panel. In October 2014, George Will was uninvited from speaking at the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program at Scripps College. After the invitation was extended, Will wrote a piece about sexual assault on college campuses. He feels this is the reason for the cancellation. Ironically, the Program is put on for the purpose of exposing the students to political views NOT held by a majority of the students. Derp.

Milo has been cancelled or uninvited from many speaking engagements on college campuses. Could it be that because he is SO controversial to the politically-nearly-monolithic higher ed community in America, that it is EVEN MORE IMPORTANT that his voice is heard? That we can have discussions and even civil debate and arguments about the uncomfortable topics that he brings to the forefront?

“On an American college campus, a place of higher education, a place of learning in America, which I’ve come to as a visitor from the United Kingdom, where we don’t have a First Amendment, hoping that this would be somewhere where you could be, do, and say anything, where you could express your views, express your opinions, crack some jokes, make people think , make people laugh, free from violent responses to political ideas — I thought America was the one place that that would be possible.”

The few. The brave. The Republicans on college campuses.

The hosts of Milo’s appearance at UC Berkeley, Berkeley College Republicans, are understandably shaken today. Members of that group are presumably very passionate about their political beliefs, else why would they spend the time to be in an organization that surely represents a tiny minority of the thinking at the school. They were probably excited about the event, to have someone entertaining and funny speak some of their truth on their own campus. Someone who takes on the opposition with wit, facts, logic, and strength. Instead, their event was cancelled by a violent and hateful mob. They report on their Facebook page, “It has come to the attention of the Berkeley College Republicans that several persons who turned out in support of Mr. Yiannopoulos were violently assaulted by protesters tonight. UC Berkeley has an obligation to care for all of its students, regardless of their political persuasion. We demand that 1) resources be made available to affected students, and 2) the university issue a statement condemning the so-called ‘anti-fascist’ groups which perpetrated tonight’s despicable carnage.”

“The progressive left in America has been engaged in the project of conflating ideas with action. And the reason they want to do that — they introduce these words like ‘student safety,’ like if you’re a conservative speaker you represent a threat to student safety — they do it to blur the lines between ideas and action. Why? To legitimize their own violent responses to somebody else’s political opinions.”

It’s going to continue to backfire. Big league!

But, instead of speaking to about 500 college students last night, Milo reached MILLIONS. Revealing the Left for who they really are. Against freedom. Against free speech. Against critical thinking. You must agree with them, or they will BULLY you with words or with violence into silence.

Students and professors alike were campaigning HARD for the event to be cancelled. They demanded that Milo could NOT be permitted to speak on campus. Nicholas Dirks, Chancellor of the school, called Milo a “troll” and “provocateur” in an open letter. They not only find him offensive, but used the oh-so-effective code words “hate speech” to describe his views. Apparently, there was at least one warning that if the school did nothing, they would be forced to act themselves. A student wrote to campus spokesman Dan Mogulof: “In order to preserve student safety, I urge the university to do everything in its power to cancel this event. If not, students and community members will take the initiative.”

“They’re so threatened by the idea that a conservative speaker might be persuasive and interesting and funny and might persuade, might take some people with him. They just have to shut it down at all costs. America, of all places, now is a scene of political violence in response to ideas.”

If you hurt our feelz, we’re going to beat you and destroy things. Because WE’RE the loving and tolerant Left.

What can I say? I’ve seen this bullying by the media. Thankfully we’re starting to see a backlash for that. Some of it IS #FakeNews and we’re not going to believe everything they say. We’re discerning. I’ve seen this bullying by politicians. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi just wildly exaggerated when she said this about the nomination of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, “…if you breathe air, drink water, eat food, take medicine or in any other way interact with the courts this is a very bad decision.” I’ve seen this bullying from my own neighbors when they sanctimoniously declare in shared emails that all Trump supporters must be either stupid or sexist bigots. Gee, you really think that about me and my family? I suppose ’tis better to know than not to know.

The truth of all these bullies, whether they use violence or words, is that THEY SHARE THE SAME GOAL.

They seek to SILENCE us and we must not comply.