Everything that happened when Milo Yiannopoulos came to Oregon last night
The ‘Dangerous Faggot’ speaker was more comedy than Trigger Warning
Campus was buzzing last night when Milo Yiannopoulos stopped to speak to Eugene residents on his Dangerous Faggot tour.
The event was put on by Oregon’s chapter of Young Americans for Liberty Club. The University of Oregon was prepared for the backlash that the British journalist has been notorious for triggering, but instead the atmosphere was surprisingly receptive – despite his controversial views on feminism, immigration and gun culture .
‘Trigger warning’ signs were posted outside the event in anticipation of sensitive material
One attendee commented that the room appeared to be filled with conservatives instead of traditional left-wing liberals that Eugene tends to be known for.
“I was surprised that there was such a high concentration of conservatives compared to those so-called ‘lunatic liberals’. Frankly, I was expecting a lot worse,” said Oregon student Duncan Campbell.
The British journalist had the crowd laughing from the beginning with his charm, and consequently set the tone for the rest of the evening.
“I happen to overcome my natural shyness,” Yiannopoulos laughed.
The British journalist entertained a full audience with his charm and uncensored opinions
“Feminists can barely tie their shoe laces”
“The problem is that feminism has left the realm of reason behind and it has become about grievance and victimhood and feelings, ignoring facts, reason logic and everything. The second is an assault on a more fundamental freedom, the freedom on which this country is built and it’s is Freedom of Speech. The freedom to do whatever you want,” Yiannopoulos said.
He later said: “Feminists can barely tie their shoe laces let alone load a chamber”.
“I think every teacher should have a gun in their drawer”
After a near-standing ovation following his response to feminism, another student asked about his stance on guns on campus.
“I’m a very firm believer in the second amendment. I think more guns the better in general. Here’s the thing, if you were to design the perfect society there would be a lot of things you wouldn’t come up with, like the monarchy in Britain is one of them. But guess what – it works better than anything else.
“If you were to design a perfect society, you might consider not giving the population guns. I want to protect people and I want people to protect themselves. I think every teacher should have a gun in their drawer, I think every lecturer should have a gun behind their podium, I think every student should have the right to carry if they please,” he explained.
“I don’t want Muslims in the country”
His stance on Muslims was similarly controversial.
“I don’t want Muslims in the country. You have two kinds of Muslims in the country. One you have nice the nice middle-class who are never going to blow themselves up in an airplane or in a public space, and the other kind of people you have in this country are terrorists, people who are here to commit terrible crimes.
“What you’ll hear even from conservative competition is to avoid xenophobia, which isn’t even a thing, so what’s ridiculous is that Islam isn’t a race it’s a set of ideas”.
“There is no rape culture”
He also touched on the idea rape culture, calling it “not remotely plausible and obviously insane.”
“Saying you’re a critic of rape culture is like saying you’re a critic of the tooth fairy, it’s meaningless because they don’t exist.
“There is rape on campuses but there is no rape culture. I don’t understand why we’re lying to young girls scaring them for no reason, by scaring them about college. Why? Because with the wide left’s definition of everything we are encouraged to believe – touching your leg constitutes sexual assault.”
Students lined up to give their perspective on issues given by Yiannopoulos
“What the fuck does cultural appropriation mean?”
After an hour of uninterrupted talks with the internet sensation, students lined up down the center aisle to ask him questions.
Compared to past tour stops at schools such as Rutgers and Emory where the crowd was very vocal, the Eugene crowd stayed silent while students absorbed his responses. One Oregon student even called Yiannopoulos’ talk “reasonable” and insightful even though Yiannopoulos made it clear that being reasonable is not his goal when answering questions.
“I fucked up. Reasonable? Jesus.”
Given the amount of conservative supporters in attendance, it was not a surprise that he was praised for his actions, especially by Trump supporters.
Overall, despite the controversial topics being addressed, the mood was light. The audience appeared to laugh along with a lot of Milo’s statements and were obviously charmed by his upbeat personality.