Yale Free Speech Symposium Cancelled By Protesters

 

A March 10 panel on free speech, hosted by the Yale Federalist Society, was disrupted by nearly 120 Yale Law School students whose behavior was so threatening that police were summoned to escort the speakers to safety. The panel featured Monica Miller of the progressive American Humanist Association and Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit that promotes religious liberty.

The opposing groups took the same side in a 2011 Supreme Court case on legal remedies for First Amendment violations. Ironically, the Yale event was intended to show that a liberal atheist and a conservative Christian could find common ground on free speech issues. That may be the case, but progressive/leftist whackos won’t be part of any such agreement or understanding.

When Yale law school professor Kate Stith began introducing Waggoneer, the protesters stood and held up signs attacking the Alliance Defending Freedom. Their actions are an apt metaphor for what’s happening around the world today.

The protesters also predictably attacked the Yale Federalist Society, with one of them even exclaiming to a member of the YFS that she would “literally fight you, bitch.” Professor Stith then reminded the protesters that Yale’s free speech policies bar any protest that "interferes with speakers' ability to be heard and of community members to listen.”

This naturally prompted the protesters to heckle Stith and raise their middle fingers to her. Stith kept her cool and simply responded by telling the protesters to “grow up.” At this, the protesters appeared shocked. They howled and shouted at panelists, declaring that their outbursts were "free speech."

Americans can no longer say we all have free speech rights without leftist thugs calling them names and threatening to do them physical harm. We can’t state the obvious or read the First Amendment without wildly hypocritical—and ignorant-- progressive asshats verbally or physically assaulting us. Behavior which they believe is free speech! Conversely, they think a stated opinion that differs from theirs is not protected, and is, in fact, violence. And these are the lawyers, prosecutors, and judges of tomorrow. Incredible. Scary. Heartbreaking.

{I will} “literally fight you, bitch?” That doesn’t seem very progressive, tolerant, or inclusive, especially as directed at one woman from another. And you can be sure that protester purports to hate the patriarchy, disdain misogyny, “believe all women, and feel like a victim in this #MeToo world.

  One wishes to believe that episodes like this can’t be real, that no one could be that stupid, thoughtless, closed-minded, and hypocritical. Sadly, that is not the case.