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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Controversial or not, UF administration should let Milo Yiannopoulos speak

 A few weeks ago, the conservative UF organization Turning Point announced plans to invite Milo Yiannopoulos to speak later this semester on campus. Yiannopoulos is a Breitbart News contributor, notorious Twitter troll and vocal critic of feminism, Islam and political correctness. Some even consider him to be an emerging spokesman for the “alt-right,” a nationalist, nativist and anti-multicultural alternative to mainstream Republican conservatism.

When news of his plans to come to UF broke, some students met the news with excitement, while others called for a ban to prevent Yiannopoulos from speaking. A few others even shared an op-ed article written by the University of Alabama College Democrats in their school newspaper, The Crimson White, entitled “The University should disinvite Milo Yiannopoulos.”

In this piece, the author claims, “universities exist primarily to educate, and nothing about Yiannopoulos’ writings are educational.” He goes on to argue that Yiannopoulos “exercises his First Amendment rights the way mass shooters exercise their Second Amendment rights, with a blatant disregard for the well-being of those around him.” Lastly, he calls on the administration to “play its part in stemming this nation’s rolling tide of hatred, and that if that means banning a 31-year-old misogynistic child from campus, then so be it.”

I would first like to point out: I do not, by any means, support Yiannopoulos or the movement he stands for. However, I believe this approach to the matter is fundamentally wrong. The First Amendment is an inalienable civil liberty, one that public universities have no right to deny no matter how controversial or offensive the subject. The First Amendment does not state “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech unless that speech shows a blatant disregard for the emotional well-being of others.” Instead, bad ideas should be defeated through civil discourse, not through intimidation and certainly not through censorship. Justifying censorship on one idea may very well lead to justifying censorship on others.

Unfortunately, this is precisely what is happening on university campuses, although few will admit it. University administrations across the country have succumbed to pressure from student organizations and cancelled scheduled appearances under the pretext of student safety. For instance, conservative commentator and critic of Black Lives Matter, Ben Shapiro, has already had scheduled appearances at the University of California, Los Angeles and DePaul University cancelled due to “security concerns.” Yiannopoulos has been rejected from the University of Miami, also on the grounds of security concerns. To be sure, this is not just an attack on conservative or inflammatory speakers only; Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, was recently forced to withdraw its invitation to Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier for “safety reasons” following protests from anti-abortion student activists.

As Catherine Rampell astutely pointed out in her Washington Post op-ed Tuesday, “safety” has become a new excuse for universities to shut down free speech. She notes that “campus security” has become a convenient rationale for discarding commitments to the First Amendment.

It is clear that universities’ decisions to cancel these appearances are less about safety concerns and more about fear of unwanted media attention. For a school like UF, which provides ample security at much larger events such as football games, it should be no problem finding security to protect speakers or students from protesters.

Regardless of whether you find his beliefs racist, sexist or otherwise offensive, we must hold our commitment to civil liberties above all else. Only good ideas, not censorship, can counteract bad ideas. Therefore, I call on the UF administration not to reward the saboteurs and the intimidators, but to respect freedom of speech and let Yiannopoulos speak on campus.

Julian Fleischman is a UF political science and telecommunication senior. His column appears on Fridays.

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