EXCLUSIVE: Ben Shapiro Tapped to Confront Left on 10+ Campuses, Talks to Breitbart News
On Monday, January 10, Young America’s Foundation announced that it would be sending Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Ben Shapiro on a tour of college campuses around America to battle the resurgent campus radical left.
Shapiro famously descended on University of Missouri to combat the student protesters and Black Lives Matter movement after the students achieved the resignation of the president of the university; his speech garnered 50,000 live viewers and over half a million viewers overall. A few weeks later, Shapiro spoke at a YAF-sponsored lecture at Otay Ranch High School in California, where a school administrator dismissed the students, claiming that Shapiro “crossed the line” for speaking about conservatism.
Ron Robinson, president of Young America’s Foundation, explained:
Ben is the perfect person to provide the education on the importance of free speech and political correctness this country’s liberal professors have clearly failed to administer. We deeply appreciate the support of Fred R. Allen for making this one-of-a kind lecture series possible. He is ensuring that thousands of students will understand and be inspired by freedom.
Shapiro told YAF, “I look forward to the opportunity given to me by YAF and Fred R. Allen to speak to young people around the country. It’s time for America’s precious snowflakes to learn that facts don’t care about your feelings, and that truth matters far more than the irrational emotional response to it.”
Breitbart News had the opportunity to speak exclusively with Shapiro on Monday afternoon.
BNN:
Why are you taking the fight to college campuses?
SHAPIRO:
The intellectual leadership of the American left is coming from campus. It isn’t particularly intellectual, of course – it’s mostly about finding new and creative ways of shouting down your political opposition – but it’s effective nonetheless, and it’s having a massive impact on the country. The “microaggression” movement, for example, which seeks to label opposing speech a form of aggression to be stopped, is one of the driving forces behind the young left’s willingness to curb free speech in favor of political correctness. “Trigger warnings” are a way to shut people up, supposedly to protect feelings. Anything considered fringe on the left today will be its mainstream tomorrow. Just take a look at
.
BNN:
What’s your strategy going to be?
SHAPIRO:
I want to hit the students between the eyes with values and facts. Conservatives never speak in terms of values to young people, because they’re afraid they’ll alienate. But here are some values young people need to know about: you are not a superior human being because you like to steal some people’s money using the government gun. You are not a superior human being because you wish to impose your vision of the world on other people with the government gun in the name of tolerance. You are a worse
human being for wanting these things.
As for facts, as I like to say, facts don’t care about your feelings. To even have a political discussion with the Precious Snowflakes™, you first have to remove their unearned sense of moral superiority. Then we can get down to brass tacks.
BNN:
Do you know how many campuses you’ll be hitting?
SHAPIRO:
At least ten in the next few months. YAF is setting up locations right now – if you want your campus to be one of them, contact Patrick Coyle at pcoyle@yaf.org.
BNN:
Are you concerned about confrontation?
SHAPIRO:
No. I hope leftists show up so we can talk about why they’re wrong. As Andrew Breitbart used to say, you’ve got to walk toward the fire.