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Political correctness represents an existential danger for western civilization. It’s used to justify violence and to silence dissent and intellectual diversity from college campuses across the US, while facilitating Islamic terrorism in England, and preventing measures from being taken to stop it.
It was supposed to be Free Speech Week at The University of California-Berkeley September 24 to 27, but the event ended up being canceled. As a prelude to the event, Ben Shapiro gave a talk called “Say No to Campus Thuggery” on September 14, urging Berkeley students to resist coercion by far-left activists who seek to repress dissenting political viewpoints. The event took place just one day before the so-called “bucket-bomb” attack on the British subway system that left 22 injured. It’s the fifth such attack in England just this year.
Those who try to silence dissenting voices at Berkeley have the gall to call themselves “Antifa” while their ideological allies, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) at least make their intentions explicitly known in the name. The leader of Bamn, Yvette Felarca, was recently recorded giving protesters tips on how to blend into crowds so that police are unable to identify and prosecute individuals for committing acts of violence. She has also been caught on video visibly assaulting peaceful counter-protesters.
Anyone who sees intellectual diversity as more unacceptable than violent terrorism is part of the problem, and that same problem also exists in England. It’s part of why terrorist attacks continue to occur there, and why British authorities do little to prevent future attacks. In England, the police are more interested in enforcing a crackdown on what they call “hate speech” — which is really just anything critical of Islamist ideological extremism and/or the immigration policies that have facilitated their formidable presence in England and Europe in general.
- Read More: Political Correctness Kills: Boston Activist Judge Puts Politics ahead of Safety of Americans
Terrorism takes lives and devastates families while creating an environment of intimidation and oppression within the communities it targets. In England, many people feel afraid to speak out against the problem for fear of being demonized as racists or “islamophobes.” Antifa and Bamn are trying to create the same climate of submission and silence on college campuses in the US, especially Berkeley.
Just this one lecture cost approximately $600,000 in security fees. Such is the extent of the power that these factions of domestic terrorists hold. The Free Speech week which would have gone on for 4 days with a plethora of conservative and libertarian speakers had been estimated at 1.4 million before it was abruptly canceled. The combination of the fear of physical violence, coupled with sabotage by the institutions themselves makes these kinds of events extremely difficult to pull off. In 2016 Shapiro was denied entry to DePaul Universtity and unable to give a scheduled talk there.
In many cases people like Shapiro and Yianoppolous pay their own way for these sorts of events because they understand the value of demonstrating the peoples’ right to speak and the benefit of listening to multiple viewpoints.
The pretense for banning them usually has to do with a supposed “threat to student safety” despite the fact that students inside the auditorium were able to interact with Shapiro not only safely, but in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Multiple students asked questions and debated with Shapiro civilly, and productively.
Shapiro is no fan of President Trump, but that didn’t stop him from educating his audience about the actual definition and history of fascism and how the ones using fascist tactics suppress speech and thought, not Trump. In response to allegations that the country is run by a “fascist intellectual regime” Shapiro asked rhetorically, “Where is Orange Hitler coming in to shut it down?”
“Just today I got called a nazi and I consider myself a left-leaning centrist,” said an African-American audience member during a civil debate with Shapiro.
Shapiro happens to be very successful and wealthy, but for whatever reason the subsequent conservative and libertarian speakers were unable to garner the same acceptance. Was “Say no to Campus Thuggery” merely a reluctant and perfunctory concesion prior to their resistance to Free Speech Week? How can Americans feel secure in their first amendment rights if they are only protected for some, and not for others? And by that token, how can England hope to keep its population safe while simultaneously making it illegal for them to acknowledge their adversary for what it is — aggressive religious oppression.
Political correctness is now being defended with the same blind zeal as the Islamic extremists. The fight being waged in England for self-preservation and citizen safety, and the fight at Berkeley for freedom of speech are two fronts of the same war: politically correct authoritarianism against liberty in the Western world.
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