In an op-ed piece in CNN, the writers state, “the protesters, whose actions led to the cancellation of (Milo Yiannopoulos’s) talk at Berkeley and elsewhere, have done a disservice to the First Amendment.” Let’s take a look at the First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Well, there looks to be a bit of a conflict – Milo was trying to exercise his freedom to speak and the Berkley students were exercising their right to peaceably assemble. So in the end, it came down to which voice was stronger and more persuasive.

Is Milo someone we need to worry about? Yes, and others like him. Milo Yiannopoulos is a caricature not dissimilar to Hulk Hogan, Howard Stern or Trump himself. To follow a caricature is not that different from swooning over your favorite band…like the Beatles, or believing that professional wrestling is real. In the name of fighting against political correctness, Milo and others like him use hate and shock speech to bring attention upon themselves and make themselves appear like rock stars when all they are doing is recruiting college students that are vulnerable and conflicted about who they are by using a Nazi/ISIS style recruitment technique.

Berkley got it right and I believe we should continue to push against Milo and others like him all the way up to Bannon himself.

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

 

I give no one the right or permission to steer me otherwise.