"This is a warning shot to conservatives on colleges around the country..."
At a student-hosted event on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Thursday night, The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles' speech titled "Men Are Not Women" was shut down by social justice protesters, one of which sprayed an unknown chemical on Knowles, prompting campus police to subdue and arrest the student. On Friday, the chancellor of the university issued a statement to the UMKC community in which he branded Knowles as a bigot who supposedly rejects "diversity and inclusion" and praised the students who organized to protest the conservative event.
"A student group brought a speaker to campus — a speaker whose professed opinions do not align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion and our goal of providing a welcoming environment to all people, particularly to our LGBT community," UMKC Chancellor C. Mauli Agrawal alleged in the letter. "Upon learning of this speaker’s visit, members of our UMKC community responded in the best way — by organizing and conducting a counter-event across campus Thursday afternoon focused on positive messages about diversity and inclusion. And even during the speech, some peaceful protesters stood and expressed disagreement with the speaker’s views. Then, unfortunately, some others crossed a line."
On Friday evening, Knowles joined Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss the incident and Chancellor Agrawal's decision to condemn Knowles while praising the protesters.
"I’m really struck by the statement from the moron who runs that school, who says that you’re against diversity, but it seems like you’re arguing for diversity — the diversity of the sexes," said Carlson. "Am I missing something? What are you arguing?"
"The lecture itself is arguing for diversity of thought on campuses — that’s the very reason that I was invited to give this lecture," Knowles replied. He then offered his opinion on the university's chancellor: "Chancellor Agrawal is a disgrace to higher education."
"That’s for sure," Carlson agreed.
"I woke up this morning expecting an apology for being assaulted during a lecture that I was invited to give at the University of Missouri[-Kansas City]; instead, I was smeared baselessly as a bigot," said Knowles. "They referred to my claim that 'men are not women' as an 'extreme' viewpoint, and they tacitly are permitting political violence to fester on campus."
"The message here is very clear," Knowles continued. "When that person assaulted me last night, we didn’t know what it was. Initially, I thought it was paint; I was told by many people in the room that it was bleach. They later discovered that it was a non-toxic chemical that merely looked and smelled like a toxic chemical. That point doesn’t matter — what matters it the message that they were sending. This is a warning shot to conservatives on colleges around the country that if you don’t shut up, if you don’t kowtow to leftist orthodoxy, you will be bullied, you will be shouted down, you will be physically intimidated — and maybe next time that substance will be a little more dangerous, a little more toxic. It is fascism as clear as fascism can be, and the university abandoned every one of its conservative students, and it encouraged the agitators and it encouraged the violence."
Carlson responded by arguing that American taxpayers are "complicit" in this fascist trend on campus if we don't stand up and say something. "It is a public-funded university that takes tax dollars, our tax dollars, and we don’t say anything about it," said the host. "We should shut it down — immediately, I would say."
Carlson then addressed the issue presented in the title of Knowles' disrupted speech, that men are inherently biologically different than women. "I would also argue that it’s not just a conservative viewpoint," he said. "I mean there are many feminists who would like to preserve acknowledgement of the biological difference between men and women. There are apolitical biologists who just take it as a matter of obvious fact that what you said is true. Did you say something we’re not aware of?"
"Well, this is the irony. If they had let me give my lecture last night, I would have made this very point: When you say that there is no difference between men and women — this very fashionable idea that has come into the public consciousness in the last five minutes — you erase the category of women, you erase the category of women’s sports, you erase these categories that are very important to our civilization," said Knowles. "Now why did they scream, why did they shout — from the very beginning, the very first sentence of my lecture, they shouted me down, eventually they tried to physically assault me. It’s because they have no argument. They have no way to win in the battle of ideas. So they’re going to bully every person who does not agree with their ridiculous ideological fantasies. And we need to fight back. I was asked if I’m going to cancel the rest of my speaking tour. The answer: the college speaking tour just got ten campuses longer."
"It’s a scientific fact, it’s a social fact that men are different than women," Knowles added. "But on these campuses now, where the students have been totally disserved by their parents, [who] raised them without any manners, and by their educators, who raised them without any education. They now will not tolerate any plain-spoken, common sense viewpoints, and they refuse to learn, they refuse to listen. All they will do is use the heckler’s veto, and when it comes down to it, they’ll get violent and they will threaten you with substances, they will threaten you with chemicals, and they will shut you up."
"We should shut these places down," Carlson concluded. "They’re wrecking the country."
Carlson: I’m really struck by the statement from the moron who runs that school, who says that you’re against diversity, but it seems like you’re arguing for diversity — the diversity of the sexes. Am I missing something? What are you arguing?
Knowles: The lecture itself is arguing for diversity of thought on campuses — that’s the very reason that I was invited to give this lecture. Chancellor Agrawal is a disgrace to higher education.
Knowles: I woke up this morning expecting an apology for being assaulted during a lecture that I was invited to give at the University of Missouri[-Kansas City]; instead, I was smeared baselessly as a bigot. They referred to my claim that "men are not women" as an "extreme" viewpoint, and they tacitly are permitting political violence to fester on campus. The message here is very clear. When that person assaulted me last night, we didn’t know what it was. Initially, I thought it was paint; I was told by many people in the room that it was bleach. They later discovered that it was a non-toxic chemical that merely looked and smelled like a toxic chemical. That point doesn’t matter — what matters it the message that they were sending. This is a warning shot to conservatives on colleges around the country that if you don’t shut up, if you don’t kowtow to leftist orthodoxy, you will be bullied, you will be shouted down, you will be physically intimidated — and maybe next time that substance will be a little more dangerous, a little more toxic. It is fascism as clear as fascism can be, and the university abandoned every one of its conservative students, and it encouraged the agitators and it encouraged the violence.
Carlson: We’re really complicit in this. It is a public-funded university that takes tax dollars, our tax dollars, and we don’t say anything about it. We should shut it down — immediately, I would say. But I would also argue that it’s not just a conservative viewpoint. I mean there are many feminists who would like to preserve acknowledgement of the biological difference between men and women. There are apolitical biologists who just take it as a matter of obvious fact that what you said is true. Did you say something we’re not aware of?
Knowles: Well, this is the irony. If they had let me give my lecture last night, I would have made this very point: When you say that there is no difference between men and women — this very fashionable idea that has come into the public consciousness in the last five minutes — you erase the category of women, you erase the category of women’s sports, you erase these categories that are very important to our civilization. Now why did they scream, why did they shout — from the very beginning, the very first sentence of my lecture, they shouted me down, eventually they tried to physically assault me. It’s because they have no argument. They have no way to win in the battle of ideas. So they’re going to bully every person who does not agree with their ridiculous ideological fantasies. And we need to fight back. I was asked if I’m going to cancel the rest of my speaking tour. The answer: the college speaking tour just got ten campuses longer.
Knowles: We’re not going to let them bully us. We’re not going to let them intimidate us, even if the universities abandon every one of its conservative students.
Carlson: So you’re basically taking the Galileo position here. You are arguing for science in the face of a hysterical mob that wants to hurt you for saying it.
Knowles: I may as well have given the lecture that the sky is blue. I have given many campus speeches. I thought that this one would be the most innocuous. I thought this would be the driest; it’s a fact as plain as day. It’s a scientific fact, it’s a social fact that men are different than women. But on these campuses now, where the students have been totally disserved by their parents, [who] raised them without any manners, and by their educators, who raised them without any education. They now will not tolerate any plain-spoken, common sense viewpoints, and they refuse to learn, they refuse to listen. All they will do is use the heckler’s veto, and when it comes down to it, they’ll get violent and they will threaten you with substances, they will threaten you with chemicals, and they will shut you up.
Carlson: We should shut these places down. They’re wrecking the country.