First, Berkeley tried protesting. Then, they tried pricing the College Republicans out of holding Ben Shapiro’s speech on campus. Then, Antifa got involved. Once they realized The Daily Wire‘s fearless leader was still showing up, they offered counseling.
Now, the protesters are just flat-out lying.
On Thursday, the Secretary of the Berkeley College Republicans caught Shapiro protesters on video (it’s not clear whether the protesters are also students), shouting through a bullhorn, accusing Ben of being the “architect” and “founder” of “this fascist ideological regime” (presumably the Trump/Pence Administration).
If it wren’t caught on tape, it would be too crazy to believe.
Refuse Fascism: “@benshapiro one of the architects of the foundations of this ideological fascist regime.” Full blown insanity. pic.twitter.com/c3k7Qgk1DT
— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) September 12, 2017
The first part of the student’s speech is inaudible, but you can clearly pick up “… on the same day as Ben Shapiro, one of the architects and founders and ideological foundations of this fascist regime is speaking. Ben Shapiro, who says things like ‘Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage.'”
The student goes on to encourage fellow Berkeley denizens to protest Shapiro (or worse — it’s not clear exactly what the call to action is): “We are calling on people of conscience, that in this moment, this is your opportunity to take a stand. We will look back on history, on people who stood by and did nothing, who said these things have nothing to do with me.”
The speech is clearly off the cuff, but either the protester is openly lying or he has no actual idea who Ben Shapiro is, and is just saying whatever he believes will make the most impact, and rile Berkeley students up to whatever he considers to be the appropriate action.
Ben is scheduled to speak at Berkeley on Thursday and the school is already “bracing” for his impact, like he was a category five hurricane off the San Francisco coastline. There will be a “closed perimeter” and “increased police presence,” while Shapiro delivers his speech, which is, of course, about free speech.