Daniel Savio, the son of Mario Savio, who led the free speech movement at UC Berkeley in the 1960s, has condemned Milo Yiannopoulos’ decision to give out a free speech award during his planned return to Berkeley.
Speaking to The Guardian, Daniel Savio condemned Milo Yiannopoulos and his decision to return to Berkeley for a “free speech week.”
Daniel Savio, the son of Mario Savio and a composer, called the idea of Yiannopoulos’s award “some kind of sick joke”.
Savio argued that while his father would have broadly supported all people’s rights to speak on campus, there are limits when it comes to speech that directly threatens vulnerable people.
“Is freedom of speech such an important principle that we can afford to uphold it even when it means sacrificing the safety of some other folks?” Savio added.
Yiannopoulos hit back in a Facebook post, accusing Savio of abandoning his father’s principles. “In other words: my dad would have disagreed with you having free speech because you’re not social-justice enough,” Yiannopoulos wrote. “Would he? Really? Who’s taking liberties with the Savio legacy, eh Daniel? Is it me or is it you?”
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com