Whoever said that fascism would come to America in the guise of anti-fascism got it right. This violence and brutalization of political opponents is a new phenomenon in American politics, but it is becoming increasingly common, and it has a historical antecedent: the Nazi Brownshirts. In The Coming of the Third Reich, historian Richard J. Evans explains how, in the early days of National Socialist Germany, Stormtroopers (Brownshirts) “organized campaigns against unwanted professors in the local newspapers [and] staged mass disruptions of their lectures.”
To express dissent from Nazi positions became a matter of taking one’s life into one’s hands. The idea of people of opposing viewpoints airing their disagreements in a civil and mutually respectful manner was gone. One was a Nazi, or one was silent (and fearful).
That is just the kind of public arena that the Left has been trying to bring to the United States for years — particularly on college campuses. But I’ll be at Truman State University next week anyway, facing down the fascists. If they succeed in beating me up, will it prove them right? No. Will it demonstrate their moral superiority? Quite the contrary. Will it stop me from speaking? Absolutely not. And even if they kill me, others will keep on telling the truths they hate. They can’t kill us all, although I fully expect that in the long run they will try.
“Truman State University Student Threatens Violence Ahead of Robert Spencer Lecture,” by Andres Taborda, The New Guard, April 6, 2017:
Robert Spencer, conservative speaker and director of Jihad Watch, received threats of physical violence from a student at Truman State University where he is slated to speak next week as part of Young America’s Foundation’s best-in-the-movement campus lecture program.
In a slew of tweets, “Bella Waddle,” started off with the following:
This was followed up by a suspenseful tweet:
And if “Bella Waddle’s” retweet of the following tweet is any sort of endorsement, then we have a serious threat of violence towards Robert Spencer:
Hmm…not sure it’s a good idea to share with the world that you want punch Robert Spencer’s face.
Yet again, we see attempts by campus leftists to intimidate conservative speakers. If leftists really stood for tolerance, having a different point of view on campus would fulfill their mission. As we see here, though, leftists’ knee-jerk reaction to differing opinions is physical violence.
It’s amazing that groups who warn of violence on campuses are the ones who advocate for it the most.
So while “Bella Waddle” develops a sure-to-fail protest plot, just know one thing: We will be at Truman State University with Robert Spencer next week to discuss the dangers of Radical Islam.
Deal with it.