Protests at UC Berkeley occurred prior to a planned appearance by Breitbart Internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos and caused $100,000 of material damage to the campus. Masked agitators, possibly including “Dumb Donald” from the cartoon series “Fat Albert,” were blamed for disturbing an otherwise peaceful protest:
Speaking of Dumb Donald, in response to the events in Berkeley our “Tweeter-In-Chief” (who really puts the jerk in “knee-jerk reaction”) tweeted the following nugget of misinformation (i.e., alternative facts):
As tempting as it may be for some coffeehouse leftist philosophers and anal-retentive Randian Objectivists to defend Milo from a civil libertarian standpoint, recall that protestors crusading against his hate have verifiable, concrete evidence that his antics cause tangible harm to people. Conservatives scoffed when activist and protest organizer Yvette Felarca implored that the speech of Milo and his ilk was designed to “assert their power, threaten us, intimidate us, rape us, kill us.” Before you dismiss Felarca as just another intolerant Leftist seeking a safe space, remember that Milo Yiannopoulos used his platform to incite his followers to harass Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones (even calling her a “black dude”). These trolls went so far as to hack her phone and put up her photos and home address on her own website. During “Gamergate,” he targeted Brianna Wu, a game developer. Milo’s Internet lynch mob posted Wu’s address on Reddit, and she had to move out of her home for a period of time and hire a bodyguard because she received so many death threats. Words matter, folks.
Public education is under full frontal assault in the Betsy DeVos era. UC Berkeley, in particular, has been in the crosshairs of right-wing politicians dating back to the years that the contemptible Lick-spittle Ronald “Iran Contra” Reagan spent as Governor of California in the 1960’s. Contrary to Trump’s assertions, in a statement on the riots UC Berkeley made it clear that they do continue to support free speech:
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the violence and unlawful behavior that was on display and deeply regret that those tactics will now overshadow the efforts to engage in legitimate and lawful protest against the performer’s presence and perspectives. While Yiannopoulos’ views, tactics and rhetoric are profoundly contrary to our own, we are bound by the Constitution, the law, our values and the campus’s Principles of Community to enable free expression across the full spectrum of opinion and perspective.”
President Steve Bannon, Dumb Donald, and their unmasked agitator Milo Yiannopoulos will continue to distort the sacred American value of freedom of speech in the service of continued macro-aggressions against marginalized groups. An important part of the resistance will be the understanding that Alt-Right “free speech” does not serve the interests of artistic creativity or political expression. Instead, it is a hysterical, attention-seeking shock tactic designed as a Molotov cocktail to detonate the remaining vestiges of our tolerant and diverse society. Let President Bannon, Dumb Donald, Milo Yiannopoulos assert their power, threaten you, intimidate you, rape you, and kill you at your own peril.