Ben Shapiro: 5 Things I Learned At Berkeley

PolitiChicks September 19, 2017

294 2 minutes read

The students were engaged; the police were finally allowed to do their jobs. Antifa stayed away. Sure, there were protesters — lots of them. That’s great! It’s a free country, and they’re free to say whatever stupid nonsense they want to. But overall, this was a big moment for Berkeley, which had been blockaded by violent leftists for nearly a year: a civil discussion involving a dissenting, conservative voice, allowed by the administration and defended by law enforcement.

Here are a few things I learned last night.

1. When The Police Are Allowed To Do Their Jobs, Antifa Is Powerless. We’ve watched Antifa fight free speech in cities ranging from Portland to Seattle to Sacramento to Dallas to Berkeley. We’ve watched them get violent. But the biggest problem, by far, has been the unwillingness of local authorities to allow the police to do what they need to do. Last night, hundreds of police were brought in to protect our event, at a cost of $600,000. That’s because of Black Bloc and Antifa. But neither held sway, because the police quickly arrested anyone with a weapon or a mask, and prevented violence in the crowd outside. Good. Law and order is a precondition to civil society. It’s just sad so much law enforcement was necessary for a college speech.

2. Many Students Are Infected By The Microaggression Mentality. The notion of microaggressions suggests that if I attack your politics, I’m attacking your identity — and that such political attacks are a form of “aggression” equivalent to violence. Watch these doltish students chant just that:

“Speech is violent, we will not be silent!” Students protesting #BenAtBerkeley. pic.twitter.com/49V6DD9OI7

— Sophia Lee Sohyun (@SophiaLeeHyun) September 15, 2017

3. Many On The Left Are Willing To Label Anyone A White Supremacist. I, needless to say, am not a white supremacist. I devoted several minutes of my speech last night to ripping into white supremacism and the alt-right. I’ve devoted much of the last two years to doing so as well. That didn’t stop Leftist students from posting this banner opposite the building where I was speaking:

This sign is posted in the CA tax payer funded Multicultural Student Center at @UCBerkeley. @benshapiro is anything but a white supremacist. pic.twitter.com/CBl20CWiOj

— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) September 14, 2017

How far will some on the Left go in this direction? Just view this addled tweet from crazed “anti-racism strategist” Tariq Nasheed:

Suspected white supremacist Ben Shapiro, who tries to mask his racist rhetoric by claiming to be jewish, is in Berkeley now #BenAtBerkeley

— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) September 14, 2017

You see, I’m actually not even really Jewish. It’s just an enormous ruse. I’ve been undercover for some 33 years. The kippa is just a disguise to throw those wily actual Jews off the scent.

Patricia Heaton had the best response to this:

If @benshapiro is a fake jew, why does he not show up at my Sat nite dinner party until after sunrise & refuse to eat my non-kosher food? https://t.co/fAIdeYaWXn

— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) September 15, 2017

4. Students Can Handle It. Yesterday, we had a bunch of people who disagreed with me who attended the lecture. That was great, and I personally thanked them for their attendance. That apparently didn’t stop a few from feeling supremely hurt by things they didn’t even have the stomach to hear:

Just talked to a #Berkeley freshman who said she’ll be seeking counseling after #BenAtBerkeley event. She’s not attending his speech.

— Sophia Lee Sohyun (@SophiaLeeHyun) September 15, 2017

5. Conservatism Needs To Be Heard On Campus. The administration didn’t do a great job of ensuring that those who wanted to hear my speech could do so. They heavily restricted the venue, and then prevented those in the standby line from attending. The next step in ensuring free speech is ensuring that events are better handled by the administration so that those who want to hear an opposing view — and there were literally thousands who wanted to come — can do so.