Leftists At University Of Utah Announce Intention To ‘Shut Down’ Shapiro Speech

Ahead of Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s scheduled speech at the University of Utah on Wednesday night, the leftist groups Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Utah and Black Lives Matter-SLC issued a statement asserting they intend to shut down the event.

The statement began:

We have no shame in saying that we intend to shut down Ben Shapiro. This is not a decision we came to based on youthful emotions, or out of some desire for the world to be “one big safe space.” This decision was arrived at based on a real, material understanding of the political environment of Utah, and the material effects of an emboldened far right.

Describing Shapiro as “far-right” is ludicrous, since less than two weeks ago Shapiro not only attacked the hard-Left but also groups supposedly on the hard-Right when he spoke at the University of California, Berkeley.

Nevertheless, the statement continues by citing the “homelessness and suicide crisis amongst LGBTQ youth” in Utah, then accuses Shapiro of targeting those groups. The statement then hilariously charges that Shapiro spews “racist and transphobic pseudoscience with the desire to justify and encourage violence.”

Yet the very fulcrum of Shapiro’s speech at Berkeley was him decrying violence from both sides of the political aisle. (See transcript here.)

The statement concludes, “We intend on shutting down Ben Shapiro precisely because we don’t live in a fantasy world where hate speech has no consequences. We believe his hate speech can and will have material consequences for vulnerable people. This will not be a violent protest, but we intend to exercise our free speech in the boldest and most unapologetic way we can, even if Shapiro, his fans, and the University police would have it otherwise.”