On Wednesday, outspoken conservative Milo Yiannopoulos arrived at Berkeley College for a scheduled appearance. However, the event had to be canceled due to violent protests by social activist groups who refused to allow the British journalist on their campus. The protests attracted national news coverage with the protesters being heralded as fighters primed to stand against “hate speech” and criticized for being “cry babies.” While many have problems with this protest as a whole, or at the very least certain aspects of it, I believe that it highlights the growing divide in a broken United States of America.
For years we have seen the divide between the left and the right in this country grow deeper and deeper. It has become so outrageous, that the government has become devoid of all progress and compromise, with congressmen and senators voting in the interest of their party or special interests over the people. This division is also seen in the citizens. If you identify with ideals of the liberals and democrats, well then you must be a socialist, globalist, PC millennial cry-baby. And if you identify with the principles of conservatives, you’re obviously a racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, bigot.
The most depressing aspect of this division is that it could be healed with healthy discussion and debate with real solutions to real issues. However, we are seeing more and more, (with Berkeley being the latest example), that many are not even willing to hear what the other side has to say. They don’t care. Not only that, but it’s not enough for them not to listen to the other side, they have to then ensure that no one else listens either. Hardcore leftists and the PC police warn that Republicans pose an Orwellian threat to our freedom and our very way of life. However, they are the ones who want to restrict freedom of speech, the building block that allows for an informed public.
This is not to say that they don’t have a right to protest, because of course they do. However it would be far more productive and healthy for our country as a whole if we were to spend less time protesting, and more time uniting in discussion and debate. The “hate-speech” conservative who was supposed to speak at Berkeley, allows time for audience questions at most if not all of his events and even engages in respectful discussion with liberals who attend his speeches. Funny how the man liberals believe is promoting hate, is still more open to discussion than them.
