Ben Shapiro and UC-Berkeley Stand Up for Free Speech | Eastern North Carolina Now

Ben Shapiro and UC-Berkeley took on the enemies of Free Speech and America is grateful !!

    When conservative Ben Shapiro spoke at Berkeley in 2016, there was little fanfare. What changed in one year? Could it be that Donald Trump hadn't been elected at that time, and in fact, even the thought of him as a serious candidate was laughable. In February, mere weeks after Trump took office (and after the inappropriately-named "Women's March," which was clearly a vehement anti-Trump rally, on any and all issues that folks had or have with him), 150 masked individuals, likely some from the group Antifa, descended upon the Berkeley campus ahead of a scheduled Milo Yiannopoulos appearance, causing mayhem and destruction that left six people injured and damage in the six figures. Milo had to be cancelled. At a pro-Donald Trump march in March, 7 people were injured and 10 arrested. And just last month, about 100 black-clad and masked anarchists (Antifa) circumvented police barricades and attacked at least five people from what was a peaceful protest.

    But last week, on September 14, Berkeley college Republicans were finally successful in having Shapiro speak on campus. It cost at least $600,000 for security (half paid by the university), which included over 500 police, it witnessed the usual protesters, and resulted in a few arrests. But all in all, the event was a success. Now, there was a restriction on the event.... the school would only allow the college Republicans to fill the auditorium to half capacity - unlike the restriction on other (liberal) speakers. Perhaps it was a safety precaution? Hmmm. Anyway, we learned that Freedom isn't free, and in fact, the cost is not cheap at all. But no matter the cost, no matter the inconvenience, no matter the vile words and insults, no matter what the threats are, and no matter what the consequences are, Speech must remain free and available to open ears. Freedom of thought and speech are the cornerstones of our free society and without them, all others are meaningless and without a secure foundation.

    For those that don't want to hear any views other than their own, there are options... there is cotton for your ears, earplugs, safe-spaces, institutions, libraries (where you can read Hillary's latest book or Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifesto), or even your own legs and cars. - to take you anywhere else other than where the so-called "offensive speech" is being delivered. Deny yourself the freedoms that hundreds of years of brave activists sought to protect if you so choose, but keep away from OUR freedom. We've seen what a nation would look like if we should loose our freedom to speak freely, for we've seen YOU, and we know that we could nor will never tolerate it.

    Thank you Ben Shapiro for your voice, thank you UC-Berkeley college Republicans for not giving up on your mission to bring conservative views to your school, and thank-you UC-Berkeley for your commitment to Free Speech.

    [The following is reproduced from PJmedia.com: Tyler O'Neill, "Ben Shapiro Stormed Congress and Blew the Left's Argument Against Free Speech to Smithereens"]

    On July 27, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro testified about free speech on college campuses before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In less than five minutes, he dissected and destroyed the Left's argument against free speech.

    "Free speech is under assault because of a three-step argument made by advocates and justifiers of violence," Shapiro declared in his opening remarks. "The first step is they say that the validity or invalidity of an argument can be judged solely by the ethnic, sexual, racial, or cultural identity of the person making the argument."

    This "intersectionality" argument - that society structurally oppresses people of ethnic, sexual, racial, or cultural identities and therefore only those who have been oppressed can speak about certain issues - is the ground of the "microaggression" culture stifling speech on campuses, the Daily Wire editor argued.

    "The second step is they claim that those who say otherwise are engaged in what they call verbal violence," Sharipo added. "The final step is that they conclude that physical violence is sometimes justified in order to stop such verbal abuse."

    In order to understand how college campuses shut down speech - often but not always conservative speech - Americans must understand the philosophy of "intersectionality." Shapiro argued that this philosophy dominates college campuses and "a large segment of today's Democratic Party."

    Intersectionality "suggests that straight white Americans are inherently the beneficiaries of white privilege and therefore cannot speak on certain policies, since they have not experienced what it's like to be black or hispanic or gay or transgender or a woman."

    This philosophy, Shapiro declared, "ranks the value of a view not based on the logic or merit of the view but on the level of victimization in American society experienced by the person espousing the view." An LGBT black woman is automatically considered more correct than a straight white male, before any speech exits either of their mouths.

    "The next step is obvious: If a straight white male, or anyone else who ranks lower on the victimhood scale, says something contrary to the viewpoint of the higher ranking intersectionality identity, that person has engaged in a microaggression," the editor declared.

    He quoted NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who defined microaggressions as "small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless." Here's the key - "You don't actually have to say anything insulting to microaggress. Somebody merely needs to take offense." In other words, an offended person who fits the "oppressed" identities of intersectionality has the power to dub any speech from someone "less oppressed" a "microaggression." This word means not merely an insult. As Shapiro noted, "Microaggressions are the equivalent of physical violence."

    To watch Ben Shapiro's remarks at UC-Berkeley, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae4VZTVEFC4

    References:

    Tyler O'Neill, "Ben Shapiro Stormed Congress and Blew the Left's Argument Against Free Speech to Smithereens," PJ Media, July 27, 2017.

    Ben Shapiro Speaks at UC-Berkeley (Full Speech), September 14, 2017: