Say what you will about the “red-diaper babies” of the old left decades ago: at least they wore diapers. Today’s un-diapered left is dropping its s— everywhere. I missed the latest riot in Berkeley yesterday (I was out of town), but I may well get another chance when Ann Coulter is scheduled to come to campus later this month for a speech sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans. This will be a test of whether the Berkeley administration is in fact committed to free speech, or whether they’ll just go through the motions before crumpling before a mob as they did with Milo in February.
Jillian Kay Melchior reports yesterday at Heat Street about anonymous flyers appearing at Berkeley calling for “lynching Berkeley College Republicans.” Melchior’s story notes that “This semester, the Berkeley College Republicans have hosted speeches for other controversial speakers, including Charles Murray and Heather Mac Donald.” There’s more to this story, however. In both cases I was actually the person who invited Heather and Charles to campus, and I invited the Berkeley College Republicans to co-sponsor and publicize the events—but with a twist. Heather spoke on the subject of the future of free speech (not her book The War on Cops) in an event that was public, but not widely advertised. In the case of Charles Murray, after the Middlebury assault we decided that we needed to sneak him on campus and have him speak to my large class with no prior public announcement (even to my class, whom I told not to tweet out during class who was visiting), while the College Republicans quietly invited its members to attend since I have enough extra seats in my large lecture hall to accommodate 40 more people. It has come to this: conservative speakers have to be brought to campus clandestinely.
I can add some additional detail to Melchior’s reporting. I frequently notice that when the Berkeley College Republicans set up their table on Sproul Plaza, sometimes a group of lefty hecklers will set up right across from them as the “Berkeley Collage Republicans,” and spend their time mocking the CRs. Here they are in action—you can see their incoherent “collages” on the walkway:
Question: What do you think would happen if a group of students set up an LGBT table for “Liquor, Guns, Bacon, and Trump” across from one of the regular LGBT groups that also set up tables in Sproul Plaza, or mocked a Latino or Arab group table? They’d probably shut down the campus for a week for sensitivity rallies and investigations into “hate crimes.” But if it’s only the College Republicans, then, well, no harm, no foul.
The Berkeley College Republicans take it all in stride—no snowflakes in this group—as they attract all manner of hostile comment and live trolls shouting at them on a regular basis. I have no doubt it makes them tougher, and they’ll be better suited for the real world after graduation.
Memo to the world: you want to hire these kids.
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