Early this morning on Twitter, President Trump questioned University of California Berkeley’s federal funding.
Graffiti left by protesters who were against a scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos is seen on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. The event was cancelled due to size of the crowd and several fires set. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Trump’s tweet refers to the violence and rioting that broke out last night on the university’s campus surrounding an event that featured provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
A small group of people with their faces covered broke windows, hurled fireworks at police officers and threw smoke bombs, prompting UC Berkeley officials to cancel Yiannopoulos’s talk Wednesday evening. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
Should universities receive federal funding if they do not allow free speech on their campuses, and what kind of civil society allows rioting and violence to express dissent over ideas? The problem of censoring speech lies in who is the arbiter of acceptability. If you believe the Obama administration should have had that power to decide what beliefs and speech the citizens are entitled to then ask yourself if the Trump administration should. For me, the answer is clear: neither.
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