Episode 188: Berkeley Disinvites a Surprising Speaker

Berkeley, the home of the Free Speech movement in the 1960s, has been censoring conservative voices of late. But their latest “deplatforming” is someone who you’d never think in a million years would be the target of their ire.

Richard Dawkins. Yes, that Richard Dawkins.

But the thing is, while they might agree with him on that vast majority of the positions he takes — both spiritually and politically — there’s one particular position that was apparently a bridge too far.

What that position is, and how it exposes their other hypocrisies, is in this episode.

Mentioned links:

Anti-Free Speech Left Cancels Another Speaker at Berkeley…But This One May Surprise You

Bernie Sanders Makes Rare Appeal to Evangelicals at Liberty University

Atheist Richard Dawkins’ ‘abusive’ Islam statements lead Berkeley radio station to cancel his event

Uproar over Trump-themed ‘Julius Caesar,’ but none for Obama version at Guthrie 5 years ago

The Many Differences Between ‘Obama-Caesar’ and ‘Trump-Caesar’

Show transcript

Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, Ben Shapiro; what do these names have in common? They have all been uninvited from the University of California at Berkeley. Yes, what was once the center of the free speech movement has now become the center of the censorship movement. No, not everyone wanted them barred from campus, but those that were loud enough, and who destroyed enough property, exercised the Heckler’s Veto and won. Not something you’d expect from what used to be a bastion of free speech.

I guess it’s kind of like Bernie Sanders going to speak at Liberty University, home of the late Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, a Republican voting bloc if ever there was one. Yeah, just like it…except for the fires and property destruction…and the whole thing about being barred from speaking…and except for people shouting him down. Other than that, yeah, exactly the same.

When I started this show over 5 years ago, I asked the question that, between a liberal and a conservative, which one is more likely to give you a hearing, let alone a fair one? Back then I said I thought that question answers itself. Today, I think students and professors from around the country are answering it.

And just recently, another speaker was disinvited from speaking, this time at a radio station in Berkeley. As if to make the point that it’s not just people associated with the university that can’t bear to hear things they disagree with, station KPFA cancelled an interview with a prominent speaker because there were those that considered him offensive and hurtful and abusive. Ultimately, the station said that they agreed with this description of the views of…Richard Dawkins.

Yes, that Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist and card-carrying member of left-wing intelligentsia. After you get over that surprise, let me drop another bomb and tell you why he was cancelled. It was because of his statements berating the religion of…no, not Christianity or Judaism; Islam.

That’s right. For the grave sin of being consistent in his views on religion,