On Feb. 1, Breitbart Tech Editor Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at the University of California at Berkeley on the topic of what defines an offensive Halloween costume. However, moments before Yiannopoulos arrived at the campus, violent protests erupted at Sproul Hall. These violent protestors claimed that “hate speech isn’t free speech.” Students, professors and rioters began to destroy campus property and even set parts of the campus on fire. Yiannopoulos was rushed from the area by his security detail and never received a chance to speak. Not only was this event an outrage because of the extreme violence that occurred, but also this was an attack on America’s ideal of freedom of speech found in the first amendment.

Yiannopoulos is known as a right-winged journalist who openly supported Donald Trump in the presidential election. He is known for his critiques of the current feminist movement, radical Islam, and most famously for his attack on SNL actress Leslie Jones. He is known as a “Twitter troll” who was banned by the social media outlet for his comments toward Leslie Jones. Yiannopoulos, is without a doubt, both controversial and outrageous. However, he is an American citizen and rights are guaranteed to him by the Constitution including his right to freedom of speech. This man, no matter how outrageous he is perceived to be by the leftwing, has the right to say whatever he wishes to say. It is his fundamental right to do this and no one can stop that. What happened at California-Berkeley was absolutely despicable. No matter what your political affiliation may be, conservative, liberal or moderate, this was grotesque and an absolute violation of a basic human right. These protestors claim to be fighting the “Trump Regime” and fascism. However, look at what these rioters are doing: stopping the freedom from an American’s speech. They claim that figures like Trump or Yiannopoulos are Nazis, however, it seems apparent that burning property and committing acts of violence so one can not speak freely about a differing opinion is something Hitler and the Nazis would have done in the 20^th century.

Considering California-Berkeley had various protests in the 1970s protecting their freedom to speech, this whole situation seems to be ironic. There is no such thing as hate speech, speech is speech and all Americans should be able to speak about whatever they choose to. Classical liberalism advocated for civil freedoms such as the freedom of speech, however, it seems apparent from the Berkeley incident that liberals today believe the opposite.