As you probably heard, a riot broke out on the campus of UC Berkeley ostensibly because Milo Yionnapoulos was scheduled to give a speech. Fires were started. Rocks and bricks were thrown. Buildings and trees were burned (in the most environmentally conscious way, of course). Innocent bystanders were attacked, punched, pepper sprayed, and beaten unconscious. Businesses were destroyed. The usual drill. The Left simply expressed itself the only way it knows how.
The media has, as always, implicitly encouraged the violence and chaos by lending it the more noble title of “protest.” These concerned students were “protesting” a guy’s opinions by vandalizing banks and assaulting random women, they tell us. Which is like “protesting” a speeding ticket by shooting your neighbor’s cat.
No, these are not protests. Frankly, I don’t even believe that these people were all that upset about Milo, just as I didn’t believe that the thugs looting convenience stores in Ferguson were all that upset about Michael Brown getting shot. I think what we’re seeing here is nihilism. It’s not that they care too much or care in the wrong way, but that they don’t care at all. About anything. They’re just bored, empty, and filled with more hatred than they know how to contain.
If this was truly a “protest” against Milo, they would have protested by doing… nothing. Even the dimmest bulb in that crowd must realize that they’re giving Milo everything he wants by reacting this way. He gets media attention, he sells books, and all of his points about them are proven. So, if they really wanted to hurt him, they would have yawned and gone about their day. Paid him no attention. Rioting over a speaker on your campus is the absolute best thing that could happen to that speaker. The worst would be sparse attendance and bored expressions.
I know I’m not revealing some deeply hidden truth. Everyone knows this. So why did they go out and do everything they could to ensure that the person they hated would win the day and his message would be amplified? Because they’re violent, aimless, thugs and they just felt like burning stuff. Don’t dignify this lunacy by calling it a protest. Don’t even dignify it by lecturing them about proper ways to vent their anger.
“Angry” people don’t destroy private property for no reason. That’s what attention starved punks do. And Leftism has created a whole generation of them because Leftism is, at its root, hollow, confused, self-contradictory, and spiteful. This is what happens when a generation is raised in that kind of ideology. They start fires just to start them, because they don’t know what else to do. It’s really as simple as that.