On April 25, The American Enterprise Institute’s Christina Hoff Sommers, Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos, and comedian/commentator Steven Crowder were part of a free speech event at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Of course, the topic of the discussion was political correctness on campus, which sent the cupcake brigade into a conniption fit. All I can say is God bless Campus Reform for capturing one of these precious snowflakes going absolutely berserk at the event. The clip is embedded for your enjoyment below (via Campus Reform) [Warning: some strong language]:
One of the protesters took it upon herself to pass out literature expressing her concern for the “triggering” event, claiming the speakers “all demonstrate either that you don’t give a shit about people’s trauma and pain and think it’s funny to thrust people into states of panic and distress OR that you fundamentally do not understand what a trigger is, what it means to be triggered, and what a trigger warning is meant to prevent.”When Campus Reform asked the activist to elaborate on the flyers, she refused to provide her name or comment because, as she put it, “Campus Reform causes death and death threats due to its extreme language.”
As the speakers walked onto the stage they were greeted with boos and middle fingers from many audience members, to which Steven Crowder graciously responded with a middle finger of his own.
The speakers were constantly interrupted throughout the event by shouts from the audience to “go home” or that “we don’t want you here,” with some of the most enthusiastic hollering coming from the very protester Campus Reform had attempted to speak with before the event.
When the protester attempts to interrupt Yiannopoulos at the beginning of the video, Hoff Sommers tells her to “calm down, young lady.” Paying no heed, the protester responds with an impassioned “Fuck you! Fuck you!”
Later on, the young lady begins loudly asserting that “hate speech is not welcome here” and demanding that the speakers “keep your hate speech off this campus,” all while insisting that she is the true embodiment of free speech.
“Stop talking to us like children!” she demands at another point.
“Then stop acting like a child,” Hoff Sommers responds coolly.
First, the notion that Campus Reform causes death by using “extreme language” is just absurd in itself. Second, you’re just asking to be mocked when you have to dole out pamphlets saying that the people on stage, or any speaker invited to a college campus that leans to the right, doesn’t understand what a trigger warning is—as if to suggest it’s a real thing. It’s a figment of the progressive imagination to censor views that don’t like because they lack the maturity to deal with the fact that in a world of over six billion people—some might have differing opinions on certain subjects. Oh, the horror! The horror!
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg torched the political correctness ethos being injected into college campuses in his commencement address at the University of Michigan yesterday, calling “safe spaces” a “most dangerous” place since it fools young minds into thinking that they can cordon off a space where no differing opinions can enter. He labeled such activity counterproductive in our politics, both at home and abroad, aptly noting that an open mind is what makes American society, and others that embrace freedom of speech and expression, unique. You are either for freedom of speech or against it. There’s no such thing as being a part-time free speech supporter. Reality is going to pummel these precious flowers. It’s going to be nasty—that realization that your feelings don’t trump our constitutional right to free speech. And yes, that includes getting your feelings hurt.
