What a week for free speech, right?

Last week kicked off with the “protests” on the campus of UC Berkeley in an attempt to muzzle Milo and cancel the event he was set to speak at on Wednesday night.

Calling the events that transpired here “protests” is laughable. These were full blown riots. Between the vandalism of the campus and the assault of several members of the crowd who didn’t share the same ideology as the majority, I felt as if I was witnessing a scene from The Purge in real time. It was absolute anarchy.

These riots have sparked countless protests on college campuses nationwide. Twitter was crawling with pictures and videos of these protests taking place, but it’s almost as if the counter protests received more viable coverage than the actual protests.

Many social media accounts, most specifically Old Row, encouraged these counter protests by plastering our timelines with videos and pictures of them trolling the lefties. To many of us, this gave us the laugh we not only needed, but the laugh we deserved while watching fellow students make a mockery of our campuses. While these counter protesters give us comical relief, they aren’t the real MVP of the week.

On Thursday, a protest took place on LSU’s campus in which the main focus of the protest was to attack President Trump’s executive order concerning the 90 day travel ban of multiple countries, or as the left calls it, the “Muslim ban.”

The Daily Wire ran an article on Friday with a video attached showing Chris Caldarera, a student at LSU and a sports writer for the student newspaper on campus, The Daily Reveille, standing in the middle of the circle of protesters in the Quad trying to simply explain that Trump’s executive order didn’t entail an actual “Muslim ban,” but rather a ban on individuals from seven countries.

Chris was unable to convey this fact to the crowd though. A few seconds after he began to speak, he was met with opposition from the crowd as they booed him and hurled insults his way. The insults were a green light for members of the crowd to approach him in an attempt to censor him. Needless to say, given that he was just the lone voice of reason in a crowd of hundreds, possibly thousands, he was quickly silenced.

This hit home for many of us conservatives. Not only that Chris was met with opposition ,considering that’s just kind of common practice on college campuses these days, but rather because of the courage it took for him to walk into the middle of the protestors and take a stand against the lies of the left. He was greatly outnumbered and wouldn’t have stood a chance if push came to shove, but he stood for truth and expressed his First Amendment rights in a way that seems to be lost in modern times.

After seeing the video, I knew I had to get in touch with Chris because of his courage,but this also took place in my home state of Louisiana, a notoriously conservative state. To see the power the left had in numbers at our state’s flagship school scared me.

It frightened me from behind a computer screen, but it shook him to the point he actually did something about it.

I got in touch with him Friday and told him how much I admired his bravery. I wanted to get his side of the story so I could better understand what had happened. I asked him if he wanted to make a statement on the events that had taken place and this is what he had to say:

“Disagreeing with President Trump’s policy in the refugee executive order is perfectly fine. I was just trying to say that calling it a Muslim ban is factually incorrect. People don’t have rational discussions about politics anymore. It’s all about shouting at each other. The less people listen to each other, the more problems this country is going to have.”

It’s almost as if people feel like the louder their voice is, the quicker their problems will be resolved. That’s not the case. As Chris said, it’s almost like people can’t have rational conversations about politics anymore if they disagree ideologically on any issue whatsoever.

The left is obviously angry about President Trump’s executive order, but they haven’t taken the time to listen to what the executive order actually entails, much less their peers when they try to provide clarity for them. Chris was simply trying to help, but the protesters were caught up in trying to make their voice heard that they gave themselves a chance to listen.

This is a recurring problem with our generation. As a whole, we don’t want to listen to what other people have to say for the most part. We seem to have an embedded pride in our opinions and thoughts and we want to make those heard so that others can be “enlightened by our wisdom.”

There’s nothing wrong with making your voice heard, but when you don’t have the ability to stop and listen to the side of the story from those you disagree with, that’s where problems arise.

The mainstream media is the world’s worst at provoking this. As seen at UC Berkeley, there were thousands of students who were “standing up to fascism” under the guise of ANTIFA by cancelling the event that the “alt-right fascist” Milo Yiannopoulos was set to speak at.

First of all, Milo has no association with the “alt-right” and never has; yet news outlets like CNN didn’t hesitate to tag Milo as a member of the “alt-right” when they covered the “protests” at UC Berkeley. Quite frankly, I really think that CNN could care less if they falsely slander someone. Their attempt to associate Milo with white supremacy is just concrete proof of that.

CNN violated the one rule my mom has tried to beat into my head my entire life and that is to “think before you speak.”

This is no new development, but make no mistake: free speech is under attack. I feel as if this notion is true even more so on college campuses than any other place in America. The left believes that this attack on the first amendment is an attack against them. Quite the opposite is actually happening though. Rather than be on the defensive, the left has been on the offensive.

The left has every right to assemble and express their first amendment rights. But when the left’s right to assemble and speak freely hinders everyone else from being able to express that same right, that’s when a problem arises.

When a riot breaks out to keep someone who has been tagged as a “free speech activist” from speaking on the topic of free speech, the left loses every bit of credibility they had, as well as the ability to play the victim. Chris saw this first hand. These protestors were doing what they believed was their right, but when Chris got silenced they were infringing on his right to do the same.

The older I am, the more I realize that that free speech isn’t widely understood and is often used as somewhat of a Trojan horse as a means for people to “get their way.” Free speech has turned into an avenue to vandalize property, demonize the other side, and cause physical harm to others. This is simply unacceptable.

Free speech is meant to provide the right to do exactly what it says: speak freely and without oppression from the government. Free speech doesn’t give anyone the right to strip others of that same right, and the recent climate of college campuses has given me the impression that the left has either lost sight or never truly understood the first amendment.

The first amendment was meant to unite, not divide. It’s there so that “we the people” can stand together and disagree with grace. However, the first amendment was never meant to drive a stake between people of differing ideas. Without the first amendment, we truly have nothing.

It’s time that we accept that the first amendment doesn’t pick and choose who it applies to; it is applicable to every American, not simply the loudest voice.

Related

The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.