Milo Yiannopoulos, 32, is the editor of Breitbart News Network. He is considered to be part of the alt-right. The alt-right is a “far-right political movement rife with white nationalists, anti-Semitic and racist ideologies” (CNN). Breitbart is a far right conservative news website, preferred by many Republicans because of its conservative perspective. He was recently banned from Twitter for his posts regarding feminism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and even attacking Leslie Jones, an SNL comedian, about her role on the recent Ghostbusters film, stating, “If at first you don’t succeed (because your work is terrible), play the victim” (BuzzFeed News). Tweets such as these, usually incited his followers to write hateful things to the accounts of those in association with social movements. Twitter released a statement explaining why they had banned Yiannopoulos from using their social network, stating the following, “People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others. Over the past 48 hours in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of Tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension” (BuzzFeed News).
In an effort to change the opinions of students attending liberal universities to a more conservative one, Milo Yiannopoulos is on a college tour, going from campus to campus, fighting against political correctness in the name of free speech. During his tour, he has been recorded making horrific remarks about Muslims, minority students, members of the transgender community (despite the fact that he is part of the LGBTQA community himself) and many other groups. Yiannopoulos has also argued that rape culture in colleges are simply a myth. He thinksof white males as the victims of rape culture and views social justice as cancerous. In an interview, he also stated that people join the feminist movement due to being “deeply physically unattractive” (CNN). When asked about left-leaning college establishments, Yiannopoulos stated, “I just want to burn it down. I am speaking on college campuses because education is really what matters. It’s a crucible where these bad ideas are formed. Bad ideas like progressive social justice, feminists, Black Lives Matter, that I think is so cancerous and toxic to free expression.” This tour has incited many hate-crimes at an estimate of 172 incidents reported at college campuses across the country. This spike has been attributed to the confidence gained by alt-right groups following the victory of Trump and encouraged by people like Milo Yiannopoulos, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
His next stop on this tour was UC Berkeley on Wednesday night. It was soon canceled due to the violence that occured through the protest against his arrival. Although students protesting were doing so peacefully and there was no violence, soon “150 masked agitators” (CNN), whom are claimed to have not been associated with the college, began acting violent and turned the peaceful protest into a chaotic riot. The damage left by this riot cost the college nearly $100,000 and approximately 6 were injured. Cancelling his speech did not stop Yiannopoulos from starting a march on campus. Trump followed with a tweet stating, “If UC Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” (CNN) UCLA has also cancelled Yiannopoulos’s event at their college partially due to safety concerns. Johnson of UC Davis stated, “We’re a public university, bound by the US Constitution. And we’re not supposed to be censoring speech so it’s not really up to us to say who can say what on campus.” Chancellor Nicholas Dirks of UC Berkeley added, “In our view, Mr. Yiannopoulos is a troll and provocateur who uses odious behavior in part to ‘entertain,’but also to deflect any serious engagement with ideas. We are defending the right of free expression at a historic moment for our nation, when this right is once again of paramount importance. In this context, we cannot afford to undermine those rights, and feel a need to make a spirited defense of the principle of tolerance, even when it means we tolerate that which may appear to us as intolerant” (CNN).
Yiannopoulos believes that through the college tour he is providing insight as to the conservative, specifically far-right, side that is not as well represented in liberal colleges. He has also established a scholarship in every college he has visited, which is only available to white male students. Many students fear that although Yiannopoulos has the right to free speech, what he says effects the students that are left to deal with his lasting impression on their classmates. One student from UC Davis stated, “The fear is with folks who are gonna see him. He leaves. But the folks who are attending (his event) are the folks that I have to sit next to in classrooms” (CNN).
Elisabeth Mitrofan ’19
Works used are cited below.
Park, Madison, and Kyung Lah. “Berkeley Protests of Yiannopoulos Caused $100,000 in Damage.” CNN. Cable News Network, 2 Feb. 2017. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.
Lieberman, Dan. “Milo Yiannopoulos Is Trying to Convince Colleges That Hate Speech Is Cool.” CNN. Cable News Network, 2 Feb. 2017. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.
Warzel, Charlie. “Twitter Permanently Suspends Conservative Milo Yiannopoulos.” BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed Inc, 20 July 2016. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.
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