Wednesday night protesters at UC Berkeley took to the streets of the campus to protest a speech scheduled to be given by Milo Yiannopolous, an editor at the right-wing website Breitbart News.
Fires were set and further damage was done to the campus as the speech was eventually cancelled.
https://twitter.com/michael_bodley/status/826973557083103233
https://twitter.com/GillianNBC/status/826982753879019520
Now I’m all for free speech and the first amendment. I’m also for citizens in this country like the students at Berkeley voicing their disdain for a bigoted blowhard like Milo Yiannopoulos.
However the destruction of property isn’t the way to go about getting your points across. It’s simply fodder for the opposite side that Liberals are nothing than extreme domestic terrorists bent on the destruction of their own cities, states and country. Burning and breaking shit is counterproductive to a cause focused on unity and equal rights. Not to mention zero support is gained through nonsense like this.
Meanwhile, Yiannopoulos and Donald Trump reacted to last night’s events:
“You know, I am not a scary far-right, you know, kind of neo-Nazi as some of the posters claim. They put those things on posters to try to legitimize their own violence against me and against my supporters. Instead, I’m just sort of libertarian, gay, Trump-supporting provocateur who likes to, you know, present interesting arguments. … [The left] just cannot tolerate anyone popular on campus who does not subscribe to their own crazy views.”
If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
Okay, notice what Donald Trump did there with that whole free speech thing? Again, violent protest aren’t winning over any new supporters. Then again, Donald Trump has shown to be nothing but absent-minded when it comes foreign and domestic policy that his tweet probably wasn’t the best example to use when it comes to appealing to new supporters. Especially when an implied threat is issued by Mr. 45 that he’ll repeal funding because he’s upset over a University initially disapproving of one of the top guys at his state media platform.
How authoritarian of you Mr. President.
