CSULA Students Set Up “Safe Space” for Shapiro Event, Three Months Post-Event

Students at California State University Los Angeles have set up a “debrief on anti-blackness” to “discuss” the “immense hurt and trauma” that Ben Shapiro’s YAF-sponsored speech “inflicted” upon the campus last February. Give me a break. First, most, if not all of these students, didn’t even attend the lecture, which was sponsored by YAF’s Fred R. Allen Lecture Series and organized by CSULA Young Americans for Freedom. Protesters barricaded the doors to the lecture hall, barring most people, liberal and conservative alike, from even entering the room. How could they be “hurt” by a speech they didn’t even hear? Second, the “details” of the event are riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations– For example: No, YAF certainly didn’t “bus” people in from Orange County. That’s absurd. The organizers claim “Shapiro…proposed that diversity in any form was/is a problem.” Ben Shapiro said exactly the opposite during his speech, which focused on intellectual diversity (and is available for viewing online at any time). Once again, I doubt these students heard a single word of the lecture, reacting more on emotion, rather than fact. In the words of Ben Shapiro, sorry CSULA students, but facts don’t care about your feelings. The event goes on to claim that CSULA students were “shoved & abused.” That’s correct: they were pushed and shoved by the protesters themselves, not the students eager to see Ben Shapiro. Most of those students were waiting patiently outside, or being snuck in the back entrance three at a time for fear of their safety. There are countless videos & pictures to back this up. In fact, a YAF student, who happens to be partially deaf, was jostled around and “groped” by protesters outside the theater. They also claim that “physical threats of violence were made to faculty and students” prior to the event. If you were counting Dr. Robert Weide, who threatened to “wrestle” students and called campus security on me when I dared to put up posters on a campus bulletin board, you would be correct. It was certainly not YAF students and staff making physical threats. In fact, it was quite the opposite, I personally was uncomfortable walking on campus alone, and the YAF students preparing for the event always traveled in groups. The organizers of this event are quick to complain about the “emotional, mental, and physical effects” they claim to have experienced because, god forbid, a person with whom they disagreed spoke on campus. Rather, I believe that they were merely shocked to hear a different opinion on campus. They hear the same liberal narrative from their professors, classes, clubs, and other students. These students are ensconced in CUSLA’s liberal cocoon, unsure what to do when a conservative pops their ideological bubble. Tomorrow, these students are meeting together in a “safe place” to “discuss” (read: complain about) Ben Shapiro’s lecture in February. It’s sad, really, that these students would rather force themselves into an ideological quarantine than hear alternative ideas. The YAF students at CSULA, on the other hand, are out on campus every day, fighting for just one iota of conservatism on campus. You don’t see them demanding their own “safe space,” do you?