Free speech doesn’t guarantee you an audience

Free speech was at the center of the debate surrounding Spencer’s appearance at MSU. Legally, hate speech is protected under the United States Constitution, but that doesn’t mean that an individual’s speech is protected from ridicule or protest, or that it will be heard. Anti-fascist protesters were extremely successful at preventing people from attending the event with less than 30 in attendance. Spencer loves to wear the cloak of victimhood, but, despite his cries for justice, preventing people from attending his appearances is not a violation of his speech. Ironically, he uses the muscle of the Constitution to protect himself while simultaneously calling for “peaceful ethnic cleansing,” achieved through the elimination and displacement of all people of color from North America, both an act of treason and a violation of the country’s founding documents.

Hypocrisy and Fantasies of White Victimhood

For a group of people who love to throw around “snowflake” as an insult, members of the alt-right sure seem to meltdown when faced with the most minute deviation from their fragile white fantasy. Lashing out at any suggestion that they might have to coexist with people different than themselves, their entire “movement” is built on the concept of isolating themselves from divergent ideas and experiences. The “oppression” they experience is, comically, nearly non-existent compared to those of people of color, women, immigrants, or the LGBTQ community.

Perhaps the most flagrant hypocrisy displayed on Monday was Spencer’s dramatic performance masquerading as a peaceful advocate for change. An act that was regurgitated in the press multiple times, despite being patently false. Pointing his finger at the anti-fascist group known as Antifa, Spencer categorized the outside protest as “worrisome and heinous,” and an “attempt to use violence to prevent people from attending a speech that was peaceful.” While a small fraction of protestors certainly engaged in violence, such as throwing rocks and fist-fighting, his group was far from innocent.

Laughably, Spencer paraded around as a peaceful victim while simultaneously hiring a violent white-nationalist organization called the Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), led by Matthew Heimbach and Johan Carollo, as his personal security force. Heimbach, who was the organizer of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville last year, is pictured below standing in front of a flaming swastika.