Well, ladies and gentlemen, the lines have
been drawn and The Free Speech Wars are upon
us.
This battle, between freedom of expression
and those who would quash it in the name of
tolerance, has been ramping up for quite some
time now, but it has officially arrived into
the mainstream.
From Gamergate, to Ben Affleck's Gross and
Racist tirade, to trigger warnings and safe
spaces, to Hillary's deplorables comment,
to punching Nazis, and now to the mayhem after
Milo Yiannopoulos tried to speak at UC Berkeley,
the battle over free speech is now front and
center in the American psyche.
Some of us tried to put out this fire before
it got so enflamed... and I guess we failed.
And for those of us who have been awake to
what was happening this whole time, there
is a doubly interesting challenge for us now.
Not only do we have to continue our fight
for free speech and free expression, but we
also have to try to bring along all the new
people who are just now realizing how dire
this situation is as it bubbles into the mainstream.
Before I get into the Milo situation I quickly
want to share with you my experience at two
college campuses in the last week.
Last Friday I spoke at Portland State University
with my friends and former guests Christina
Hoff Sommers and Peter Bogossian.
At first, the local anti-fascist group was
going to try to stop our event (I guess irony
isn't their strong suit) but about a half
hour before the event, their protest was cancelled.
I'm not exactly sure why they cancelled on
us, but I'd like to believe that maybe they
suddenly realized we weren't the gay hating,
women hating, white nationalists they said
we were on their Facebook.
Somehow though, I doubt this group did their
research to find out I'm gay and married,
Christina is a feminist, and Peter has a Chinese
daughter.
None of those facts make us great people by
the way, they just add a little insight into
the lunacy of what we're dealing with here.
The fact three moderate speakers had to be
escorted to the venue by an armed guard is
a sad sign of the times, but the 400 people
who came to listen, learn, and share their
ideas really took part in something great.
A few days later, I spoke at UCLA with Steve
Simpson of the Ayn Rand Institute and Flemming
Rose, the editor of the Danish newspaper that
published the Mohammed cartoons.
Once again, Free Speech was the topic, and,
once again, I'm proud to say the conversation
was civil, honest, and most importantly engaging.
What I realized more than anything over the
course of these two conversations is how starved
young people are not only for honest conversation
about difficult topics, but also to have their
own voices heard without fear of being called
a bigot, a racist, and the rest of the usual
buzzwords.
Ironically, as we began our question and answer
portion of the evening, one of the first questions
was about what was happening that very moment
at the Milo Yiannopoulos event at UC Berkeley.
So, while we were having a calm and insightful
conversation at a southern California university,
there was a university in northern California
which was literally burning because rioters
decided their moral obligation to destroy
public property, stopping someone from simply
speaking, was more important than other people
right to engage in freedom of expression.
All this leads me to what happened last week
with Milo at UC Berkeley and the long term
effects it's going to have on free speech
in America.
If you somehow missed it, around 200 rioters
decided to destroy public property, break
windows, tear down light posts, and burn whatever
they could get their hands on... all so they
could stop Milo Yiannopoulos, a bleached blonde
British gay man, from exercising his freedom
of expression.
By the way, I do make the distinction between
protesters and rioters.
Protesters of course have the right to stand
outside and chant and show signs and exercise
their free speech, just as Milo is using his.
These people on the other hand, were rioters,
despite what several mainstream outlets said,
and were there to create violence and wreak
havoc.
They are fascists in the name of anti-fascism.
I guess irony isn't taught in Fascism 101.
Of course anyone paying attention should've
seen this violence coming.
I did a video a few weeks ago about how The
Left has painted itself into a corner by calling
everyone else Nazis, so their obvious next
move was violence.
If you have framed all your intellectual opponents
are all Nazis then suddenly punching Nazis
is fair game.
I saw a disturbing amount of public people,
including comedians I used to respect, saying
it was OK to punch Richard Spencer, the alt
right leader, because he is a Nazi, or a white
nationalist or whatever he is.
Therein lies the rub of free speech.
Everyone seems to be for free speech when
it's easy to defend, but you really see who's
for defending free speech when it's hard and
uncomfortable to do so.
And of course all these faux brave people
are nothing more than virtue signaling Twitter
Warriors.
If the threat of Nazis is so great why are
these people on Twitter instead of outside
with gangs of Nazi Hunters?
Where's Brad Pitt when you need him?
And is punching Nazis enough?
What about bombing their cars?
Burning down their homes?
When is it too much?
And who decides who a Nazi is?
If we punch Nazis can we punch people who
talk to Nazis?
One of the tricks that the Left is using is
that this definition of Nazi will increasingly
expand until everyone has silenced themselves
out of fear of violence.
Their game of using buzzwords is losing, and
you watching this have a lot to do with that,
so they're moving onto the next phase which
is violence and intimidation.
Putting the violence itself aside, just think
how poorly thought out this tactic is, if
the goal is to silence their opponents.
Does Richard Spencer seem more influential
or less influential than when he got punched?
Does Milo Yiannopoulos seem more culturally
relevant or less culturally relevant than
before these rioters stopped him from speaking?
The misguided authoritarians are actually
increasing support for the very ideas they
claim to hate.
Milo supporters are multiplying like gremlins
in water.
To be clear, I like Milo, he's a friend even
though we don't agree on everything.
And the fact that I see so many people saying
"I don't agree with him on everything" is
also a symptom of how far we've fallen as
a society that protects free speech.
Who in your life do you agree with on everything?
Why would that ever need to be said?
We are all flawed, imperfect people who are
often ideologically inconsistent on a day
to day basis.
That you don't agree with someone 100% should
be the most obvious thing ever.
We are individuals, not preprogrammed robots.
At least not yet.
We're continuing our partnership with Learn
Liberty this week and sitting down with Flemming
Rose, who, as I mentioned, spoke with me at
UCLA recently.
Flemming was the editor of the Danish newspaper
that published the Mohammed cartoons back
in 2005.
His life, and in some respects the fate of
western civilization, was significantly altered
that day.
Over 200 people died it riots around the middle
east after the cartoons were published and
Flemming's life was turned upside down.
I taped this interview with Flemming before
I'm taping this Direct Message right now and
wanted to add here that he is truly one of
the most decent, genuine people I've ever
met.
He is a fervent supporter of free speech and
free expression and has paid the price for
it both personally and professionally.
He is in the thick of a battle that was thrust
upon him because we live in an unjust world,
not because he is unjust.
He lost friends in Paris in the Charlie Hebdo
massacre and now travels the world to show
people how precious free speech is, but perhaps
more importantly how tenuous our precious
freedom really is.
Let me be clear here.
This situation is going to get worse as it
goes more mainstream.
The Left will continue to purge all it's moderate
voices until it eats itself entirely.
Bill Maher, who has been the standard bearer
of the Left for the past 20 years, now gets
called a bigot...by the Left.
I was actually in the audience at Real Time
this past week in which Sam Harris made his
return to Real Time and he and Bill discussed
the need for moderate voices in the Muslim
world, while also blaming Trump for his executive
order on immigration and much more.
Of course, the usual suspects came out after
to call them both Islamophobes and the usual
drivel.
Eventually this destructive force will come
after every dissenting voice there is, because
Leftism isn't based in individual rights,
it's based in authoritarian control.
The Left will come for everyone, even their
hero Bernie Sanders.
Let's not forget he's a rich white man with
three houses!
The Free Speech wars are upon us, and unless
you are ready with the knowledge and passion
to fight it, this battle will be lost quickly.
The issue we now face is that the masses are
going to awake to this battle only now, years
after many of us have been in the trenches
fighting it.
Combine the slow expansion of who the Left
deems to be a nazi, with a hysterical media
full of clickbait journalism and we have a
recipe that can only lead to more violence.
The challenge for the rest of us will be to
continue to try to build some bridges even
in places we wouldn't have thought of before.
Let them keep demonizing the rest of us and
before they know it we'll have grown a new
center rooted in free speech, logic and reason,
than they could've possibly imagined.
Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that out
loud...
