Why Milo Yiannopoulos should not speak at UCSB

But he’s welcome to stand on a table and preach in the Arbor

Oh Milo, you and I have so much in common. We’re both middle-class, white, male Brits residing in America and both woefully unqualified to speak about feminism, #blacklivesmatter or campus rape culture.

The announcement that Milo Yiannopoulos would be coming to speak at UCSB in May with a talk entitled “Feminism is Cancer,” hit me with that underwhelming pain that comes with a stubbed toe. I’d never before drawn the parallel between a movement for women’s rights with malignant tumours which cause 7.6 million deaths each year until now.

For those that don’t know, Milo is a self-styled Internet troll, ‘cultural libertarian’ and journalist. Though more qualified to write about technology, his “Dangerous Faggot” tour will travel around colleges and wage “all-out war on so-called ‘social justice’.” He will be insulting feminism, dispelling the “myth of campus rape culture”, and taking on “the lies the race baiters tell.”

He prides himself on telling the facts with a dose of humour against the “humourless, divisive, identity-obsessed elites.” At Rutgers, the first stop of his tour this Tuesday, his speech prompted feminist and black lives matter activists to disrupt the proceedings and cover themselves in red paint.

A predictable, angry fall-out ensued and all that anyone took away from the evening is that Milo takes joy from saying offensive things. Nothing really profound or original was said about free speech or feminism other than what you might hear from a mid-brow conservative radio talk-show host. There was certainly no productive discussion about any of these topics.

The aftermath of Milo’s talk at Rutgers

At the very least one could expect some entertainment. Here is one choice quotation from that evening on lesbians, and will give you a flavour of Milo’s general humour: “I’m not entirely sure there’s sex without penises. There’s not really lesbians, there’s just women we like to watch in porn.”

Hilarious stuff. Not only is the joke original, but also finely tuned to hit that funny bone with just the right force. I can’t wait to hear more when he comes to UCSB.

The problem with Milo is that he is neither particularly funny nor telling the facts. He shouldn’t be invited to speak on campus – not because he’s offensive, but simply because he has nothing to add to the conversation around free speech, feminism or campus-politics. In short, he’s an intellectual lightweight.

“Controversial” Milo Yiannopoulos sticking it to the feminists. Credit: Lauren Southern.

To argue that this is an issue of free speech misses the point. I mean, we could for instance, invite those crazy religious preachers in from the Arbor and give them a platform. Are we not shutting down their voices too? But we don’t give them a platform because they have nothing interesting or thought provoking to say.

Despite all of this, I’m not suggesting he should be banned outright. All this would achieve is add to his smug belief that he’s on the vanguard of some sad counter-revolution against student activists. What Milo reads as persecution from the totalitarian left is in fact just him saying some questionable statements about women/black/trans people, and those same women/black/trans people not particularly liking it.

Milo – and his supporters – are not first amendments crusaders or free speech defenders, just battered egos annoyed they can no longer make the same racist jokes without public objection.

There are conversations and debates to be had around race-relations, free speech and gender in universities but Milo – with his misinformed 1970s humor and faux-controversial statements is really not the person to do that.

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