Milo Yiannopoulos, a young gay conservative Brit and anti-political-correctness provocateur, and the student protesters at Rutgers. NJ.com reports:
“In my view, anybody who asks for a trigger warning or a safe space, should be immediately expelled” [Yiannopoulos said].
The audience loudly applauded his statement.
He said such reactivity merely demonstrates that those students “are incapable of exposing themselves to new ideas.”
“They are demonstrating that they are incapable of engaging in a humble pursuit of knowledge,” he said.
At which point, a woman yells from off camera, “This man represents hatred!” They also started chanting “Black lives matter.”
The video then pans to one side of the auditorium where two students appear to smear fake blood on their faces.
The evocative display was met with loud applause.
Members of the audience in support of Yiannopoulos booed and started chanting, “Trump, Trump, Trump!”
The protesters also splattered their fake blood, Breitbart reports:
the progressives stormed out of the auditorium, leaving a trail of red paint for the janitors to clean up.
Walls, seats, and doors were also vandalised by the protesters. Peaceful attendees who had come to hear a speech instead found themselves splashed with the fake blood. At least one attendee was allegedly assaulted by a protester, who covered him in red paint.
The rise of authoritarian-progressive political correctness, which seeks to stop the expression of ideas its adherents dislike, is met with support for Donald Trump. It’s action/reaction, and represents the sad state of left-dominated academia. It does not bode well for the country.
More. And in Britain, Peter Tatchell: snubbed by students for free speech stance:
The emails from the officer of the National Union of Students were unequivocal. Fran Cowling, the union’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representative, said that she would not share a stage with a man whom she regarded as having been racist and “transphobic”.
That the man in question is Peter Tatchell – one of the country’s best-known gay rights campaigners, who next year celebrates his 50th year as an activist – is perhaps a mark of how fractured the debate on free speech and sexual politics has become.
In the emails, sent to the organisers of a talk at Canterbury Christ Church University on Monday on the topic of “re-radicalising queers”, Cowling refuses an invitation to speak unless Tatchell, who has also been invited, does not attend. In the emails she cites Tatchell’s signing of an open letter in the Observer last year in support of free speech and against the growing trend of universities to “no-platform” people, such as Germaine Greer, for holding views with which they disagree.
Cowling claims the letter supports the incitement of violence against transgender people. She also made an allegation against him of racism or of using racist language. Tatchell told the Observer that the incident was yet another example of “a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere” symptomatic of a decline in “open debate on some university campuses”.
19 Comments for “The Dichotomy”
posted by DMZ on
Yiannopoulos does not really oppose PC, but represents a competing, right-wing version of it with his call to “immediately expel” people who advocate for trigger warnings.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Yiannopoulos does not really oppose PC, but represents a competing, right-wing version of it with his call to “immediately expel” people who advocate for trigger warnings.
DMZ nailed it — a bunch of self-righteous brats on both sides too young to have developed adult judgement.
It’s action/reaction, and represents the sad state of left-dominated academia. It does not bode well for the country.
Stephen, who is probably my age or close to it, has clearly forgotten what college campuses were like in our day — full of internal conflict and strife, loud demonstrations and all of that, on both sides. I don’t think that anyone needs to go into full George will Tut Tut mode, fearing for the future of the country. It is just college kids acting out and acting up.
posted by DMZ on
Glad you liked my comment.
I forgot to add: the point about Trump is very good. What authoritarian, left-PC does is immediately escalate any dispute into a Manichean struggle between good and evil. That kind of polarization renders reasonable debate impossible. Trying to be reasonable is only further evidence of your guilt.
You must either throw up your hands and disengage, or hit back with brute force and flip the tactics around, which is what Trump represents.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
What authoritarian, left-PC does is immediately escalate any dispute into a Manichean struggle between good and evil.
Unlike the authoritarian social conservative right …
The problem does not arise when a bunch of college kids act like idiots (that is to be expected) but instead arises when supposed adults act like college kids.
posted by Houndentenor on
This is actually a problem in a few schools. But I actually looked for similar in the two state-run universities with which I am affiliated and I came up with nothing. This seems to be isolated to a handful of elite schools full of spoiled rich kids who have been pampered to a catered to their whole lives. My students go to school and work at least one job (and add a second one over summer and Christmas breaks. It’s not nearly as widespread as the people making a thing out of it would have you believe. Safe spaces are necessary sometimes and long-established. Alcoholics, for example, are able to share in front of others with similar problems in ways they wouldn’t feel safe doing in front of any other group. The same goes for those in rape support groups etc. And yes like anything else well-intentioned it got co-opted by people who took it to the ridiculous extreme. I was actually worried after reading all this that I’d be confronted for teaching music by “dead white European men” or for dealing with sometimes less than PC material (some of the poetry and libretti from the 18th and 19th centuries is indeed sexist). But there has been no problem because these are young adults who are capable of having intelligent conversations about such. (And I would have no problem finding them another piece to work on if they had a problem with it.)
I too am appalled at some of the nonsense going on at a few college campuses, especially the shouting down and dis-inviting of ex-Muslims who talk about problems in that religion and those cultures. But it’s not as widespread as the people exploiting this nonsense would have us believe.
posted by Walker on
Elite schools like Missouri?
posted by Jorge on
The rise of authoritarian-progressive political correctness, which seeks to stop the expression of ideas its adherents dislike, is met with support for Donald Trump. It’s action/reaction, and represents the sad state of left-dominated academia. It does not bode well for the country.
Nonsense. You have it exactly backwards.
It’s Donald Trump who supports the ordinary guy. Also known as the silent majority. People simply feel inclined to thank him.
According to the NY Post, Trump is now at 44% support among Republicans. Not surprising they’d support a tampon-Nazi considering how much they’re against birth control. Trigger warning: you’ve just been Trump bombed.
“(Rutgers groups) should not be inviting anyone like (Yiannopoulos) because what we stand for is inclusion and diversity,” Nyuma Waggeh said, according to the Targum.
What the hell?
And… What the hell?
“If a speaker makes someone feel unsafe or uncomfortable, then they should not come to campus.”
That reminds me of one of my middle school classmate’s favorite commercials:
Boss: “We’re talking about your job here.”
Employee: “No, we’re talking about sexual harassment, and I don’t have to take it.”
As a boss myself, I am allowed–indeed, at times required–to make my direct reports feel unsafe in their job security and uncomfortable about their competence. The rules tell me exactly when and why I can do that. The rules also say when I cannot make them feel unsafe and uncomfortable. The principles involved are very important, but they don’t have cute cuddly names like “inclusion” and “diversity”, and they’re not as vague, either.
And if I don’t work for you and you don’t work for me, POLITICAL HARASSMENT IS FAIR GAME! On issues that are a matter of public concern, such as the proliferation of trigger warnings or the level of vigilance toward matters of non-discrimination and diversity, freedom of expression is protected by the First Amendment of the United States.
And unlike what my fellows like to argue, the First Amendment applies even to public colleges, through the power of cultural acceptance and collective shaming. That is why we must continue to report stories like this, and fight for the power to decide who and how to shame.
This seems to be isolated to a handful of elite schools full of spoiled rich kids who have been pampered to a catered to their whole lives.
Humph. Reminds me of my old college student body de-recognizing a political group for offending people.
Here’s how you beat the PC police: have no friends. Depend on no alliances, act on your own authority. Then only one person gets to decide whether or not to back down–you do. That’s how I did it when I was in college. And, oh, hey! That’s how DT is doing it, too.
posted by Houndentenor on
I’m not saying that it isn’t a problem. I don’t like what’s going on at many college campuses either. If students don’t like a speaker they should press to get a speaker to present a different point of view IN ADDITION TO rather than instead of said speaker. Free speech means people get to say things I don’t like. If others don’t have the right to say things I disagree with then at some point someone will want to silence me because they don’t like what I have to say. It’s short sighted to see free speech any other way.
Also, Milo…ugh. I didn’t really know much about him until I saw Dave Rubin interview him. Milo is everything I was afraid I’d be when I realized I was gay. Conservative? He’s like a caricature of what right-wingers think gay people are like. Only he’s on their team. What strange times we live in.
posted by Jorge on
*Watches.*
Woooooooow!
“It’s not gay actually, you are selling out, selling out, selling out to hetero-patriarchal institutions. Stay gay. Married, get married, my Gawd! Could there possibly be anything more awful?”
“No, I do think there’s some value in this because… Look, homosexuality is a dissident aberrant sexuality, and I mean that in a morally neutral sense.” (Wow! Imagine if I said that at work!)
“You just mean it’s the other.”
“No, I don’t mean that.” (Love Rubin’s face on that one.)
“I do think though that it’s a shame when as a gay as one of those people who mother nature has selected to be different and to test stuff out and to push the boundaries… that you sort of buy into precisely the sort of the socially conservative institutions which I love and I recognize the buildings blocks of society… as a homosexual–not that gays shouldn’t have them–as a homosexual you should recognize that your evolutionary function is to experiment with different models of things.”
I much, much, MUCH prefer to add a religious explanation to that.
“Why would you want to be equal? You’re already superior?”
I think I like him, but I utterly cannot stand his celebration of his own promiscuity. To make matters worse, I think he’s absolutely right about it. Yeeeech!
“I’ve never had so much really poisonous vitrioilic nastiness as from other gays who think my politics are wrong.”
posted by Houndentenor on
I didn’t agree with ANY of that. Yes, there’s a time to have fun. I certainly did, but to be so angry at the idea of same sex marriage was bizarre. That is the best situation for a lot of people. Why is it so hard for some people to understand that not every relationship style or living situation is right for everyone. And what’s more I’m not sure he actually means any of it. He’s a provocateur (Stephen even admitted that) who throws out a lot of crap in order to get a reaction. Sadly in all that bullshit he did have a coherent point or two which he sadly did not elaborate on. (Specifically that the current public school system penalizes young boys for acting as young boys always have and always will. The ability to sit still and be quiet for hours on end is unrealistic for most children (girls as well) and we need to return to more physical activity, recess and unstructured time during the school day especially in the first couple of grades. I don’ t know what idiot decided that 5-7 year olds don’t need that, but they should be fired and banned from anything involving children, education or otherwise. And since a lot of them can’t do it we drug them? This is unheard of and there are plenty of people who are experts speaking out about this. Now that’s an issue worth exploring but instead he’d rather spend time with an audience that wouldn’t normally listen to him with the rest of his nonsense.)
posted by Jorge on
…but to be so angry at the idea of same sex marriage was bizarre.
I keep forgetting how sensible and logical social conservatives can be about explaining the most aberrant things. Or is it abhorrent?
Personally, I think his view of same sex marriage makes him come across as a socialist nationalist. I might be persuadable to giving gays a financial incentive to shoot up and have more sex (wait, wait… no! That’s what that AIDS vaccine is doing!), but I’m not there yet, I definitely don’t like the shaming aspect, and I would much rather force gays into gay marriages than into the closet.
And what’s more I’m not sure he actually means any of it.
I only watched the excerpt about “gay stuff”, but he keeps saying he does. He admits being a provacateur with less bombast than Coulter and he explains exactly why: 1) because he objects to the “you can’t do/say that” culture as a direct threat to society in general, and gays in particular (something I agree with), and 2) because in the current social and media environment, that is the only means to effectively put forth his views and expose the flaws of those he objects to and disagrees with (hmm…). Once you’re past that, when the context is sincerely nonjudgmental, his views become very clear. His brutality toward Mr. Rubin’s life choices is genuine. What keeps it from being nasty is the informality.
Why is it so hard for some people to understand that not every relationship style or living situation is right for everyone.
Then do good in another way. But that doesn’t mean all relationship styles are equal. It just means you are.
but instead he’d rather spend time with an audience that wouldn’t normally listen to him with the rest of his nonsense.
Why do conservative gays seek so much love from progressives?
posted by Houndentenor on
“Why do conservative gays seek so much love from progressives?”
The same reason they seek love from conservatives. Masochism.
posted by Jorge on
That sounds just a little too kinky for me to comment on publicly.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Here’s how you beat the PC police: have no friends. Depend on no alliances, act on your own authority. Then only one person gets to decide whether or not to back down–you do.
Isolate to avoid conflict and peer pressure? A better alternative, it seems to me, is to have lots of friends, but know what your believe, and stand up for it, living life accordingly, letting the chips fall as they may. I’ve always had plenty of friends, few of them who agree with me on anything close to much, many of whom believe as differently from me as chalk and cheese, and my life has been much richer for it. I was raised that way and I’m glad I was.
posted by Jorge on
Well, I agree that being your own person is the important thing.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Conservative? He’s like a caricature of what right-wingers think gay people are like. Only he’s on their team. What strange times we live in.
Exactly.
He looks, sounds and acts like a caricature, but a lot of that might be that he a Brit playing the role of clever twit, parroting his upper-class betters.
i gather that he’s made a name for himself as a gamer, but he’s no deep thinker otherwise, as evidenced by his “solution” to students seeking a “safe place”.
I think that it is interesting that Stephen picked him out (of all people) to use as a model, but then its not the first time, and probably won’t be the last.
posted by Sifrid on
In the words of the immortal Texas newspaper and magazine columnist Molly Ivins: “the answer to offensive speech is not less speech but more speech.”
posted by Houndentenor on
I have sympathy for people who are being shouted down or having speaking engagements pulled because what they have to say is unpopular. Those cases are disturbing and we need to put a stop to that trend before it spreads. I do not, however, feel bad for people who are mad that their views make them unpopular or get them criticized. No one has a right to be liked or to be free from criticism of what they do or say. Yes, sometimes we take positions that lose us friends. Every gay person knows what that’s like. I don’t really have much sympathy for people who can’t take a little criticism considering what being gay was like when I came out in the 80s. They need to grow up, stop whining and learn to deal with the real world.
posted by Tom Jefferson 3rd on
This just in; left-wing and right wing students are prone to public theatrics, well organized outrage and a not caring much about tact or nuance. People can not imagine what has become of today’s youth…..
In other news, Fox News has declared President Obama to be the extraterrestrial, anti-christ and MSNBC has just released photos showing that president Obama is really a super hero .