A Dark Day for Free Speech

The article referenced the famous Free Speech Movement. 

Just a reminder that movement was about University censorship of groups trying to raise money for Dr. King, SNCC, and other civil rights groups.

I didn't finish college. 

"But the issue has split the left, where Ms. Coulter found unlikely defenders among people like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who scolded those who tried to block the speech."

Amen. This is embarrassing for progressives everywhere. Are we really threatening violence against someone whose ideas are so laughably ridiculous? This windbag deserves to be laughed at, not threatened with violence. 

Get your shit together, Berkeley. 

Yeah her speech is being suppressed. There is simply no way for her to get her views known to the world, besides a speaking engagement in Berkeley.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter#Books

She got exactly what she wanted. She is the queen of self promotion. 

I agree with Nancy. Ann Coulter is chicken shit. She talked a big game, but wasn't willing to suffer to advance her point.

I'm disappointed as I wanted to see her troll angry lefists.

>This windbag deserves to be laughed at, not threatened with violence. <

this, along with the lotta them..

hello ender.

>>>>>>>>Amen. This is embarrassing for progressives everywhere. Are we really threatening violence against someone whose ideas are so laughably ridiculous? This windbag deserves to be laughed at, not threatened with violence. 

I disagree with your statement, St. Mark.

IMHO, it all came down to who would be willing to be responsible for the health and safety of the public, particularly the students of UC Berkeley.  When the administration and police of UC Berkeley (and perhaps City of Berkeley as well) were holding the bag of responsibility, they determined that it was not safe enough to host Coulter on 4/27/17, based on recent evidence.  They proposed a safer date, time, and place.

Coulter refused to accept that change.  She insisted on holding her own rally, essentially without the help of the Berkeley community.  Backing/funding organizations backed out and she's now not getting her $20 grand paycheck.

The collective "we" are not threatening violence against Ann Coulter, if that's what you mean, St. Mark.  If you are talking about the "we" of violent Antifa/BAMN and Alt-right/related groups who have made a not-quite-unwritten agreement to converge on Berkeley to stage an all-out brawl, I suppose that you have a point.

I wish that Coulter and her folk decided to go ahead with the speech next week, when everybody would've been more prepared to hold it.  I've heard that people are opposed to that date because it is "Dead Week" on campus, but why would that be a problem?  Sure, there are no classes during that week, but the students are still in town preparing for their finals.  Wouldn't they actually have MORE flexibility to attend a Coulter speech during a week when they didn't have classes?

In my book, this is another case of people being too stubborn to consider a middle, more sensible, path; and actually work together to uphold all of our First Amendment Rights.

In the meantime, I'm somewhat reassured that my daughter's afterschool dance performance tomorrow will most likely proceed without significant violence in the nearby streets (A father needs to have his priorities )

>>>When the administration and police of UC Berkeley (and perhaps City of Berkeley as well) were holding the bag of responsibility, they determined that it was not safe enough to host Coulter on 4/27/17, based on recent evidence. 

This is what concerns me. The recent evidence points towards escalating, politically-motivated violence, and I have a huge problem with that.

If the administration of UC Berkeley determined there was a credible threat of violence, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt. I think progressives need to take a look in the mirror and determine how much of that we need to own. Maybe the rhetoric has taken a turn into a place we really don't want to go.

Why can't a divisive blowhard roll into Berkeley and talk a bunch of inflammatory shit? I genuinely don't see the harm, but maybe I'm missing something?

Punch a fascist in the face. 

"the resistance" 

Thanks for continuing the conversation, St. Mark.

Here's an article from the locals that I hadn't read before (and have not finished yet):

Who exactly was it that turned Berkeley into a battlefield April 15?

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/04/17/exactly-turned-downtown-berkeley-...

>>I didn't finish college. 

Why do you always repeat that, Slacker? As an excuse or explanation? 

Ann Coulter is certainly seizing the moment for her own publicity. 

Just read in the paper today there's an uptick among Angelenos who believe we are heading for another riot like '92. I don't see four years of Trump happening without more political violence. I'm not advocating it but it's happening. Anarchists like the Black Bloc don't necessarily identify with the system whatsoever so they're not about to stop. Certainly the govt will try to infiltrate and suppress, but it's Whack a Mole for now. 

Mark, serious question, were you not aware of the multiple street battles that have already occurred in Berkeley just in 2017?

There's no question of whether there is a credible threat.  

Anyone remember this article from Pew Research late last year?

40% of Millennials OK with limiting speech offensive to minorities

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/20/40-of-millennials-ok-wit...

Keep mocking.  Very interesting who one sees in the gun shops these days  

^Who's mocking whom???

Not you.

That was a good read, Johnny, thank you. My takeaway is that there is plenty of blame to go around to self-proclaimed "radicals" on both sides in Berkeley.

Look at this shit:

“Being armed is vital right now,” said Rosealma. “It should be in the best interest of the left to learn …. military tactics for the street when we’re out here under the threat of the neo-Nazis who were gladiator helmets and shields and full-out riot gear.”

Yeah, fuck that. I'm a pacifist. I'm not engaging in politically-motivated street violence with anybody, no matter how inflammatory their rhetoric might be. 

I think it's far more effective to mock their ideas, and discredit their positions with the savage power of derisive laughter. I don't need a gun. I have a Twitter account 

>>>Keep mocking.  Very interesting who one sees in the gun shops these days  

so if you're implying that leftists/progressives are now arming themselves and preparing for an armed rebellion, you're going to be woefully outnumbered. To use the oft repeated argument, " what difference are your guns going to make against the heavy duty equipment of the police and/or military forces, national guard, etc? you stand no chance."

and if you're implying that "the resistance" is going to engage in armed combat with the opposite side, you're extremely outnumbered & out-trained. the "other side" had 8 years of record guns & ammunition sales. that number dropped precipitously once this orangutan was elected.

in either scenario, you lose. badly.

I don't know about the free speech part, but I do know that lately no one was paying enough much attention to this person, who I generally just ignore, and now they are.

BTW - She will be "speaking" in Modesto on Friday and according to the local news here, the event is sold out. Tickets were $125 to $10,000 according to visitmodesto.com

Life truly is a cabaret.

"Money makes the world go around. The world go around. The world go around.
Money makes the world go around. It makes the world go 'round.
A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound. A buck or a pound. A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go around. That clinking clanking sound can make the world go 'round.
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money" - Kander/Ebb

The Modesto event is the annual "Lincoln Day Dinner" for the Stanislaus GOP.  Tix start at $125 and go up to $10K, it's their big fundraiser of the year.  GOP groups all over the country do "Lincoln Day Dinner" as a big fundraiser dinner with keynote speaker.  Coulter has a new book out.  Sure, some neo-nazis might show, but these tickets aren't selling because of what happened in Berkeley. I think she's a pretty big name for this event.  They'll have chicken and probably a raffle. Expect to see more of Coulter as she pimps her book.

Now her book signing that afternoon might get hairy.  Not for Coulter so much, but Nathan Domingo (white power guy) is based out of Modesto, and he'll have his goons and if he has his goons then the kids have to show up and so it goes.

Coulter successfully trolled everyone again.  I can't stand the lady but she's certainly good at what she does. 

I said nothing of the kind.

This is only 100 days.

Wait till Sessions moves on the legal rec/medical states.  Wait till the next time coppers kill an unarmed person. 

Self defense.

berkeley is annoying me right now.

I decided to read up on what Ann Coulter believes/says and it's pretty obvious that she's been trolling us all these years under the screen name: Seadoggie.

they look pretty much the same

Coulter is a rhetorical bomb-thrower, which is an entirely different thing than being a real bomb-thrower. Coulter has never tried to shout down a speaker she doesn’t like. She hasn’t thrown rocks at cops. She isn’t an arsonist. She offers up provocations that she gamely defends in almost any setting with arguments that people are free to accept, or reject, or attempt to correct.

In other words, in the Berkeley context, she’s the liberal. She believes in the efficacy of reason and in the free exchanges of ideas. Her enemies do not.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/26/ann-coulter-the-libera...

>>>free exchanges of ideas

It's funny to me that you think she (or you yourself, for that matter) are open to any ideas other than what you already believe... thanks for the chuckle.

Again, the combatants (mostly) are not from Berkeley and have no affiliation whatsoever - the right and left. And Thom, we're not talking about your typical liberals on the left - these are simply anarchists who just want to fuck shit up. They do not represent Berkeley or its citizens. Berkeley is not a big city, but this is a big city problem now, and a very expensive one considering the security needed for these events. People who live and work there are fed up with it. I don't think anyone wants to shut down free speech - they are just tired of their home being used as a battleground.