On Thursday night, speaker Milo Yiannopoulos came to UCSB to say that feminism is cancer.
I think what goes unnoticed a lot of the time is, as a nation, and increasingly as a world, we are democratic in more ways than just our electoral system.
We decide who we want to see, listen to and follow. This is true of politicians, but it is also of comedians, bloggers, speakers, artists, YouTubers and Instagram bloggers.The problem is these people we so intently follow, listen to and watch are not people we necessarily like, relate to, believe in or understand.
Maybe these figures provide shock value. Maybe they seem interesting to us because their lifestyles or beliefs are so different from ours. Maybe we envy them. Maybe they are just pretty to look at. Maybe we like to laugh at their stupidity because it makes us feel more intelligent.
Either way, in too many cases they are not people we like or even are like.
This discrepancy is so monumental because when we are listening to these people that we select, we are giving them a platform, a microphone and funds and all when we don’t even necessarily like them!
Do not fall under the ignorance of thinking such people do not realize what they have been presented with. They know, and they capitalize off it. The reality TV stars know their behavior is incredulous, the corporate hippies on Instagram know their flowy pants look good and Milo Yiannopoulos knows the power unpopular opinions hold over college campuses.
People like to voice their opinions. They like to assert their voices and views.
College, specifically, is a liberal protest waiting to happen. It makes sense. We’re young, energetic, loud, passionate and opinionated.
As such, someone like Yiannopoulos is given an easy platform.
The conservatives on campus are just given a megaphone, finally. Because let’s be honest, we don’t hear from their side of the spectrum here too often. Even though many of the conservatives on campus may not have fully agreed with Milo, they were excited for a voice, a platform.
The problem is these people we so intently follow, listen to and watch are not people we necessarily like, relate to, believe in or understand.
Therein lies the problem: that someone like Yiannopoulos is needed.
We look up to these loud, interruptive and provocative figures like Yiannopoulos, who, yes, make us mad, but in doing so give us a platform — through their platform — to talk and be bewildered and impassioned.
I found Yiannopoulos’s most important and illuminating point to be his declaration of a desire for the world to look a little more like a “living internet comment section.”
People like Yiannopoulos and his beloved Trump have platforms that we, as the mass public, have gifted them.
However, in internet comment sections, we too have platforms where we voice things and talk about things and say things we are too scared to say in real life.
If we would please ignore everything else Yiannopoulos said, but listen to his desire to make the unsayable sayable, then perhaps we would stop giving platforms to people like him because we would have no need for an extraordinary figure to break the norms. We would be used to hearing them because we would be talking and discussing and living life like it was the comments section.
Perhaps if the word “feminism” was part of our normal discourse we wouldn’t be appalled by a large sign screaming that “Feminism is Cancer,” because then we would have already heard it a million times from the annoying boy in the back of our class.
Milo stated that the artists, journalists and news reporters of today can’t say much because of linguistic taboos and as such we have gotten the art and books we deserve.
On this, I agree. Do we want our culture and our social conversation to be bland and easily cooperative and then instead have loud public figures who make us uneasy?
Wouldn’t it be better if we chose to listen to ourselves and make our own art and communication dynamic?
Milo Yiannopoulos said that feminists are all fat.
We can ignore that, but the only way we can tune people like him out of the public sphere is if we listen to something else he said:
“More speech is better than less.”
We can only drown out our provokers with our own voices. We can decide to give ourselves the platform.
Anjalie Tandon feels that not all is lost when listening to people we may disagree with.
Kudos to you for seeing light in the darkness.
but in doing so give us a platform — through their platform — to talk and be bewildered and impassioned That is exactly why Milo is hilarious. He causes the unstable people on the left to lose their cool. The mainstream media even the left end is apologizing for, denigrating or openly mocking campus protests. I do d it refreshing. The real world is hard. You need to be a professional, and getting bent out of shape over a speaker is unacceptable. Feminism is not an uncommon word. It was used a lot in the past decades and has a… Read more »
Also, you don’t have the choice to “”tune him out of the public sphere”
That is what free speech culture is all about. Shouting down people you disagree with and using whistles to make disruptive noises is regressive plain and simple
When I hear a real conversation by leftists about child custody and divorce, I will believe that there is really an inclusive conversation.
I hope I don’t come across as boorish, but these are both real issues that aren’t delegitmized by history because equal rights are equal rights
I’m glad you came to hear him speak even though you disagree.
Great article! Glad you are coming around for free speech :)
Nice to know that hate speech is being considered acceptable and tolerated by people on UCSB’s campus. WHEN is the administration going to step in?
Hey in my opinion what you’re saying is hate speach. When is administration going to step I?
And who’s do decide who’s right and who’s wrong?
‘Hate’ is in the ear/mind of the beholder. I found nothing hateful about anything Milo had to say. Who gets to define what hate speech is? To me, Hillary Clinton engages in hate speech all the time, as does Barack Obama. It all depends on which side of the political spectrum you are on.
No offense, but this article is crap. It is not okay to make a student body feel unsafe, and the write has validated this as okay.
Further unimpressed with the Nexus.
If non-threatening controversial speech makes you feel unsafe, the real world is going to crush you. Please learn coping skills for your own sanity.
-feminist are fat
Omg I feel unsafe
-someone wears a trump hat, gets spat on, shoved and threated
Lmfao serves you right you asshole. #feelthebern
The ‘write’.??
this article is idiotic. nobody should have the right to spew hate speech, especially on campus.
You’re stupid. Find me a single legal precedent for hate speech being exempted from First Amendment protection, and get back to me.
Actually depending on intent the courts have ruled that hate speech and other types of speech said in a manner sure to provoke a violent response is illegal. Typically under common terms of “fighting words.” While not saying that is what happened at the event there is legal precedent. This is one of a few.
“…hate speech and other types of speech said in a manner sure to provoke a violent response is illegal.” So if I or a group I belong to ‘violently respond’ to something you say, does that automatically mean what you said was hate speech? Some have promised ‘nationwide riots’ if Trump gets elected. Is that Trump’s fault? NO. It’s the fault of the ones who would not accept the will of the majority. That how democracy works. Again, one person’s ‘fighting words’ are another’s deeply held truth. One side’s ‘terrorist’ is the other side’s ‘freedom fighter’–It’s all subjective, and depends… Read more »
It is the not the violent response but the intent to cause a violent response and then saying the words intended to cause that. It can be hate speech or inciting a riot or many other things. This wasnt saying Milos event up help this definition. it doesnt not even close. I was merely pointing out that there are limits to all speech including hate speech.
No response when you are shown to be wrong?
I think the fact that I have to take a mandatory class that teaches men not to rape (implying we’really all rapist unless taught otherwise) is hate speach and should not be allowed
‘Hate’ is in the ear/mind of the beholder. I found nothing hateful about anything Milo had to say. Who gets to define what hate speech is? To me, Hillary Clinton engages in hate speech all the time, as does Barack Obama. It all depends on which side of the political spectrum you are on.
Props to you! Milo is a provocateur, he says most of his stuff to agitate. He is a bigot and a sexist, but his right to speak gives me the right to call him a bigot and a sexist
Bingo! You summed it up perfectly.
defending a neo-nazi? unbelievable.
milo should be in prison, not speaking at uscb.
You triggered, bro?
Even if I agreed that he’s a “Neo-Nazi” (which I find a ludicrous assertion, but I digress) he still has a right to speak. The point is that ideas you don’t like don’t simply go away because you abuse people who have them. A good example of this is a man named Daryl Davis. Mr. Davis, a black man, rather than railing on twitter, advocating for trigger warnings, limits on speech or safe spaces, instead goes out and makes friends with members of the Klu Klux Klan. He is literally eliminating racism by changing the hearts of people, one Klan… Read more »
he’s a neo-Nazi. it’s proven.
http://rsbenedict.tumblr.com/post/139549103241/why-did-the-university-of-minnesota-host-a
Heil Hitler!
Asshole
“We can only drown out our provokers with our own voices. We can decide to give ourselves the platform.”….BUT only after we stop lying and creating ‘awful rot’ with our voices.
Thank god someone finally gets it. Milo is a disgusting bigot and his speech denigrates the work of so many marginalized groups on campus. However Milo has every right to speak on this campus as guaranteed by the first amendment. If you ban bad ideas, you don’t make them go away. If anything, you probably strengthen them because now those people have a cause, they feel like they’re oppressed, they feel like they’re martyrs. In 1977, ACLU director Aryeh Neier, who despite being Jewish and having fled Nazi Germany as a child—in 1977 defended the rights of Neo-Nazis to march… Read more »
Anjalie, you say that “The problem is these people we so intently follow, listen to and watch are not people we necessarily like, relate to, believe in or understand. ” First of all, who do you mean by ‘we’? You certainly don’t speak for me, nor do I believe you speak for the 500+ attendees who paid to see Milo Yiannopoulos speak–and, yes, I do like, relate to, understand and believe MOST of what Milo had to say. “…Maybe these figures provide shock value. Maybe they seem interesting to us because their lifestyles or beliefs are so different from ours.… Read more »
I hate to tell you Milo’s opinions are not unpopular. The opinions of SJWs and a lot of current feminists are unpopular, and I understand why those people feel the way they do. They are being taught that everyone hates them and the system is rigged against them. Believing you are oppressed is no way to live your life and I’m surprised suicide rates of college students haven’t risen.