Political provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is planning a grand comeback after resigning as editor from Breitbart News earlier this year.
The self-described “cultural libertarian” announced that he will be organizing a multi-day event called “Milo’s Free Speech Week” at the UC Berkeley campus.
In light of recent controversies, I am planning a huge multi-day event called MILO’S FREE SPEECH WEEK in Berkeley later this year. We will hold talks and rallies and throw massive parties, all in the name of free expression and the First Amendment. All will be welcome, regardless of political affiliation.
Free speech has never been more under threat in America — especially at the supposed home of the free speech movement. I will bring activists, writers, artists, politicians, YouTubers, veterans and drag queens from across the ideological spectrum to lecture, march, and party.
MILO’S FREE SPEECH WEEK will include events on the UC Berkeley campus. We will stand united against the “progressive” Left. We will loudly reject the venomous hectoring and moral hypocrisy of social justice warriors. Free speech belongs to everyone — not just the spoilt brats of the academy.
This will not please the administrators at the University of California at Berkeley since last time that Milo visited the campus approximately 150 members of BANM, an organization that is linked to Antifa, were protesting and a full-fledged riot broke out. Buildings were damaged and there were several fires from fireworks and Molotov cocktails. Milo’s speech was canceled and he was ushered away when the rioters attacked the venue he was going to hold his event.
Milo has issued a threat if UC Berkeley does not allow him to speak.
If UC Berkeley does not actively assist us in the planning and execution of this event, we will extend festivities to an entire month. We will establish a tent city on Sproul Plaza protesting the university’s total dereliction of its duty and encourage students at other universities to follow suit.
This can’t make the Berkeley, California mayor Jesse Arreguin very happy since he said this about Milo’s appearance in February.
Using speech to silence marginalized communities and promote bigotry is unacceptable. Hate speech isn't welcome in our community.
— Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin (@JesseArreguin) February 2, 2017
However, things aren’t going great for Arreguin this week since it was revealed that the Berkeley mayor reportedly follows the group “By Any Means Necessary” AKA “BAMN” on Facebook. Wikipedia defines BAMN as a “militant left-wing civil rights activist group” that were “classified to be low-level terrorism in a Department of Defense exam in 2009” and the FBI identified BAMN as “thought to be involved in terrorist activities” in 2002.
The Berkeley campus has been known as the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement dating back to the 1960s. However, they have shut down three speeches by conservative voices this year so far. Most recently, best-selling author Ann Coulter had her event canceled by school administrators.
On Friday night, HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher lambasted Berkeley heads for canceling the speaking engagement by Coulter.
“Berkeley, you know, used to be the cradle of free speech,” Maher said during his show. “And now it’s just the cradle for fucking babies.”
“I feel like this is the liberals’ version of book burning, and it’s got to stop,” Maher said.
Milo’s rise was stifled in February when clips from 2015 and 2016 revealed that Yiannopoulos said that relationships between adults and 13-year-olds could be “perfectly consensual.” Later in the interview Milo said, “I think the [age of consent] law is probably about right, that is probably roughly the right age … but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them.”
There was outrage over the statements and Milo lost his speaking engagement at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), lost his job at Breitbart, and lost his book deal with Simon & Schuster.