A requiem to free speech – Campus Reform

The progression of a terminal illness is never a pretty thing to witness.

We had a diagnosis after the infamous Milo Yiannopoulos had to flee his scheduled speech at UC Berkeley earlier this year for fear of physical harm at the hands of leftist rioters, and the condition deteriorated when the administration put up roadblocks to prevent David Horowitz from coming to campus.

For the leftists on campus, its always 'free speech for me, but not for thee.'

Wednesday afternoon, at approximately 12:45 PM Eastern time, free speech passed away due to complications from the threat of violence as Ann Coulter announced she would not be speaking at the university.

Free speech had a good run, of course; back in the 1960s, there was even an entire movement supporting the ideaBerkeleyput up a website to celebrate its 50th anniversary (though how much the movement was actually about free speech as the average American would recognize the concept is debatable, as Jonah Goldberg points out here).

Now? Heaven forbid that you host a man who is as flamboyantly anti-leftist as he is gay; marauders will set fires and vandalize businesses because they cant bear the thought of residing in the same zip code as Yiannopoulos. Try to bring a woman to campus who has been physically assaultedduring her speechifying before, and the mere threat of violence will force the cancellation of her talk.

Thats just the new status quo these days. For the leftists on campus, its always free speech for me, but not for thee. Dildo jugglingis a valid form of protest, but hosting a panel of non-leftistswill bring the shrieking ninnies out.

They never call it censorship, of course; the left never does something as objectionable as that. They merely no-platform the speaker. They exercise the hecklers veto. Then they justify it by saying theyre opposing violence.

Yes, violence. Literal violence. Hadnt you heard? Speech is violence, especially hate speech, which is defined as anything they dont like. According to this bizarre worldview, since speech is violence, physical violence is justified in return. Theyll even say so in so many words.

The key to restoring free speech is simply law and order. Auburn University, even though it recently had to host the repulsive Richard Spencer, didn't see the same sort of violence that Berkeley has seen. Why?

Because law enforcement unmasked the so-called "antifascists" on a judges orderssummoning the courage to sucker punch someone is a lot harder when you know your actions will be forever linked to your face.

The judge who ruled that Spencer must be allowed to speak declared that "Discrimination on the basis of message content cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment." Would that Berkeley were under his jurisdiction!

So, for now, free speech is dead at Berkeley. Well see if it rises, Lazarus-like, later this year when Milo Yiannopoulosreturns with an army, as he has vowed to do. Well see, but Im skeptical.

It will take more than an army. Itll take a paradigm shift. And Berkeley hasnt changed in decades.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @SterlingCBeard

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A requiem to free speech - Campus Reform