Why I’m no longer a leftist or feminist
Part 4: Milo Yiannopoulos, Steven Crowder, et al
All I’d heard about Milo was that he’s alt-right and a white supremacist nazi who shouldn’t be given a voice because he incites violence. He came to speak at UW recently and I remember lots of people talking about protesting his right to be there. I didn’t know anything about the guy, I just assumed he was evil because that’s what I was told.
I decided to watch one of his speeches.
And that’s when I started to get really pissed. The reality of who this guy is and what I was told about him could not be further apart. He’s a funny, reasonable, and at times mildly offensive guy. He’s absolutely not a nazi for fuck’s sake, and the alt-right hates him. I think he’s a fascinating and complex person, and I agreed with a lot of what he said, which was shocking and disorienting for me.
So, at this point, realizing how mislead I’ve been and how much I’ve been the victim of herd mentality by trusting my liberal comrades instead of doing my own research (which, admittedly, isn’t anyone’s fault but my own), I decided to leap headfirst in the rabbit hole and look into all these people I’ve heard over the years who shouldn’t be given a “platform.” If a liberal has protested them, I’m going to hear what they have to say. I listened to Richard Spencer, Tommy Robinson, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones, Blaire White, Steven Crowder, Karen Straughan, Christina Hoff Sommers, Lauren Southern, Candace Owens. None of them were as bad as I thought.
Steven Crowder was a huge turning point for me. I find his “change my mind” videos to be thought provoking and refreshing. He changed my mind about a lot of stuff and influenced me to look deeper into things I’ve accepted without evidence or even much thought, quite frankly. I love that he sits down with people and has an actual conversation. He’s not perfect - I don’t think he’s truly open to having his mind changed, and he can be a bit petty sometimes, but he inspires me to think critically and find more of a balance in being both rational and emotive in my opinions and decisions.
On the left, those who disagree are disregarded as evil and too dangerous to even listen to, and there’s so much automatic hatred for people who refuse to think the way “they’re supposed to.” And in these right-leaning spaces, these peoples’ speeches and interviews and talk shows (specifically Milo, Steven, shoe0nhead, Sommers), and even in the comments sections of these videos and articles, I see something I don’t see much with the left: unity and civility among people who disagree. An ability to see the other person and their worldview as complex and nuanced and to search for common ground. I see real efforts to listen and understand, and a promotion of peace.
While the social justice warriors eat each other alive.
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