Berkeley survives Ben Shapiro as Washington Examiner surprised the Jewish conservative didn’t defend Nazis, KKK or alt-right
Leftist protesters gathered, yelled and screamed prompting the media to notice the latest attempt to silence free speech at Berkeley, this time is was over Ben Shapiro. The Washington Examiner’s Elliot Sterling Kaufman covered the event, writing the the conservative “underwelmed” the liberal campus.
Noting the protesters chanting “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” the writer seemed to know so little of Shapiro that he wrote: “…Shapiro ultimately revealed himself to be … a conservative. A rather animated and engaging one, to be sure, but still just your regular right-winger, the sort of person with whom an encounter does not usually demand taking to the streets or signing up for counseling” and shockingly discovered he was a Jew…
photo Jennifer Moo via Flickr
“It turns out that Shapiro, an orthodox Jew and the No. 1 journalistic target of anti-semitism on the Internet, is no Nazi after all. Nor did he make a case for fascism. Instead, Shapiro argued that all people should have the right to speak their minds, free from state interference. He denounced as bullies those who would use physical intimidation or the coercive powers of the state to silence others.”
Like many of the protesters, the media seems clueless about Shapiro, the anti-Trumper and regular critic of Breitbart and Stephen Bannon.
There is almost a shock or surprise in the article: “Does Shapiro want to throw women who get abortions in jail en masse? No, he doesn’t. Like most pro-lifers, he would punish the abortionists who lead women astray. Is he dismissive of racism? No, he isn’t. He wants to fight racism but is skeptical of some of the more nebulous claims of institutional racism out there in the ether, holding people back. Shapiro argued that the best way to get ahead, no matter what race you are, is to work hard, follow the law, and get married.”
Rare noted that “The majority of his speech, though, was a plea for unity and individual responsibility over group identity and victimhood. Shapiro promised his audience that if they finished high school, got jobs, and didn’t have children out of wedlock, then no matter their race, gender, class, or sexual orientation they would not be permanently poor in the United States.”
The media will be surprised by most of America who are NOT rabid free speech protesters with their torches and pitchforks, eager to shut down free speech.
Just a dose of the attacks on Shapiro from RefuseFascism.org:
An outrageous cavalcade of fascist speakers is set to descend on the UC Berkeley campus: first up is former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro, to be quickly followed by Milo Yiannopoulos’ “Free Speech Week” featuring fellow fascist provocateur, Ann Coulter and to be capped by an appearance by white supremacist and Neo-Nazi, former Trump Chief Strategist Steven Bannon.
Chancellor Carol Christ has cynically proclaimed this a “Free Speech Year” and announced an unprecedented lockdown of campus buildings, a militarized, heavily policed “perimeter” with ID checkpoints on Thursday to protect and provide a platform to Shapiro’s “Say No to Campus Thuggery” speech while seeking to clampdown on protest, all in the name of “free Speech”.
