At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the College Republicans recently hosted an event with three right-leaning individuals, Milo Yiannopoulos, Christina Hoff Sommers, and Steven Crowder, called “The Triggering: Has Political Correctness Gone Too Far?”

By watching video clips of the event, you can definitely tell that the group intended to provoke anyone in the audience who might disagree with them. For example, Milo Yiannopoulos opened and closed his initial remarks with one sentence: “Feminism is cancer.”

That may not be your style or ours, but the provocations seemed to prove the point. Christina Hoff Sommers argued that free speech is being suppressed on college campuses by people disrupting events, outright censorship, and more. And as if to prove her point, throughout the event those who would be opposed to the speakers were interrupting and constantly attempting to shout down the speakers. It’s a scene of utter chaos and zero civil discourse. 

 

A video of one protestor has even gone viral, making it to the front page of Imgur. The female activist shakes her arms and screams and chants, “This is free speech! … Get the f*** out of here! … Keep your hate speech off of campus! Keep your hate speech off of campus! Keep your hate speech off of campus!” 

 

The irony seems to be utterly lost on these protesters. If you’re making arguments under the banner of “tolerance” and “free speech” that means you have to tolerate those with whom you disagree. Without a doubt, the reason the video is going viral is because the protesters are the height of hypocrisy, revealing themselves to be the oppressors.

If this is typical of discourse on modern college campuses, we have come to a sad and frightening time in the history of the West.