Conservative YouTuber Speaks at Marquette: Draws Protests, Protester with Knives

It’s pretty common: anytime a conservative speaker comes to a campus leftists turn out to protest. What is uncommon is that one of them brings a weapon. But it happened at Marquette. From the Marquette Wire:

A Marquette student was arrested for disorderly conduct while armed in the Wehr Chemistry lobby at approximately 7:15 p.m. Nov. 12, Marquette University Police Department assistant chief Jeff Kranz said.

. . .

MUPD arrested the student following a report from another student saying that they saw an individual wearing a mask and carrying two knives at a Young Americans for Freedom event in Wehr Chemistry, Kranz said. The event featured John Doyle, a conservative YouTuber.

“It was a bandana style face covering so it covered (the student’s) nose and mouth,” Iona McPeake, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences who attended the event as a protestor, said.

Prior to the event, students stood outside and protested because they found some of Doyle’s tweets and YouTube videos offensive and not in line with Marquette’s values.

McPeake was a part of the group of protesters. She said the individual with the mask was not affiliated with the group protesting.

There is more information here. We can’t know if the individual actually intended any violence, but between the mask (typical of the violent thugs of Antifa) and a knife there is certainly an implied threat.

Campus leftists have a history of intolerant response to Young Americans for Freedom and their speakers. When the group invited Rachael Campos-Duffy to campus, they went around tearing down posters advertising the event.

On the other hand, a large group of leftists showed up at the event, and listened to Campos-Duffy without incident. They asked critical questions of her during the Q&A session, and listened in a civil way as she responded.

Who is John Doyle

We had never heard of John Doyle, but he’s a very young fellow who has gotten a considerable following as a YouTuber. In one recent video, he actually discusses the Marquette incident.



His final point: that conservatives can prevail if they just refuse to be intimidated by the left, is a good one. Doyle was willing (see the video) to flatly say that transgenderism is a mental illness. Rejecting this notion is a prime example of mindless political correctness. Transgenders claim to need to “transition” with massive doses of hormones and surgical reconfiguration of their genitals. But how could you need that unless something was wrong before?

A large part, and maybe most, of the toxic politically correct atmosphere on college campuses these days is (at least on most campuses) the result of the left being willing to bully and intimidate anybody who dissents.

Kudos to Young Americans for Freedom of bring speakers like Campos-Duffy and Doyle to campus.

Doing that breaks the spiral of silence and emboldens people to challenge politically correct intolerance.

Suppressed Venezuelan TV Channel Goes to YouTube

It’s a classic example of how technology can make things tough for nasty dictators.

When Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez having forced off the air the most important TV station that was willing to oppose him, the station began putting its videos on YouTube.

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Radio Caracas Television, the station silenced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has found a way to continue its daily broadcasts -- on YouTube, the popular video Web site.

Although the station is officially off the air, CNN’s Harris Whitbeck said its news department continues to operate on reduced staffing, and the three daily hour-long installments of the newscast “El Observador” are uploaded onto YouTube by RCTV’s Web department.

In addition, RCTV’s Colombia-based affiliate, Caracol, has agreed to transmit the evening installment of “El Observador” over its international signal. The program, which will run at midnight, could reach about 800,000 people in Venezuela.

Although this is drastically reduced from RCTV’s previous audience, its continued presence is a sign of hope for the staff.

“We’re just doing our job as journalists,” said an employee of RCTV. “As long as somebody is seeing us, we consider what we are doing to be valid.”

Thousands of people, most of them from area universities, took to the streets of Caracas in protest this week after Chavez refused to renew RCTV’s broadcasting license, which expired last Sunday.

Chavez accused RCTV of violating broadcast laws and supporting a botched coup against him in 2002. He replaced RCTV on Monday with a state-run broadcast station.

RCTV, which had been on air for 53 years, aired soap operas, programs and news broadcasts with a decidedly anti-governmental perspective. It was one of only a handful of private broadcast stations in Venezuela that openly criticized the government. Another, Globovision, has received similar threats from Chavez regarding its right to broadcast.

One of YouTube’s many features is the option for viewers to comment on the posted videos, and recently old and new segments of RCTV programming on the site have been accompanied by fiery debate about the limits of free expression.

“Cerrar un medio de comunicacion es una monstruosidad sin excusa alguna,” stated one commenter: “To close a means of communication is an inexcusable monstrosity.”

Of course, being available on YouTube is not really a substitute for being available over the air -- especially in a poor country where not everybody has the Internet.

But being on YouTube is far superior to being silenced.