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Posted on 11/25/2025 1:17:46 PM PST by Bullish
We can also now add Rob Schneider to the list of truth tellers that have been ostracized by the left and also harassed by a communist inspired hate group
I recently had the chance to meet and listen to Rob Schneider. He had just experienced an Antifa act of terrorism on the University of California, Berkeley, a few days earlier, where he was one of the presenters for a Turning Point USA event.
Schneider mentioned that his willingness to speak truth to power concerning vaccination legislation in Sacramento several years ago has come at a tremendous cost, as this actor and comedian has not been invited to participate in a movie role since. We can also now add Schneider to the list of truth tellers that have been ostracized by the left and also harassed by a communist inspired hate group.
As a former California State Senator who served on the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee’s Education Subcommittee, which had oversight over the University of California system, I want to apologize that this type of behavior has not improved in the last few years.
It was not always so. UC Berkeley, affectionately referred to as “Cal,” is known as the “birthplace of the free speech movement” by many in the media. To prove the point, here is an historical account of its beginnings from Ava F. Kahn and Marc Dollinger’s book, “California Jews.” It’s from the opening paragraph of Chapter 13, by Dollinger, titled “The Counterculture:”
“For an incredible thirty-two hours in early October 1964, Jack Weinberg sat in the back seat of a police car surrounded by hundreds of students in the middle of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. Weinberg, a Jewish civil rights leader, faced prosecution for violating a new university policy forbidding political activities on campus. In an impressive show of support, proponents of free speech prevented authorities from removing Weinberg, or the automobile, from its precarious spot. One by one students approached the vehicle, removed their shoes, carefully climbed onto the roof, and used the police cruiser as a personal soapbox to protest the university’s ill-fated decision. While student leaders showed some goodwill by reimbursing the police department $455.01 for damage to its car, they capitalized on Weinberg’s experience to launch a Free Speech Movement (FSM) that would redefine popular attitudes toward campus life, youth culture, and civil disobedience.”
My, how so much has changed in sixty years.
When Ben Shapiro came to UC Berkely in 2017, he was also met by Antifa forces. It was such a disappointing display of disrupting “free speech” that it now has its own Wikipedia page. The cost for police protection was not under $500, it was $600,000!
And don’t expect ticketholders who were unable to enter and enjoy Schneider’s comments to receive a refund from the perpetrators.
At the time, I was serving as the Vice Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Chair, Senator Hannah Beth Jackson (D – Santa Barbara), wanted to have a hearing in Sacramento that October, after the conclusion of that year’s Session. The hearing would be on First Amendment issues and titled, ironically, “Combating Hate While Protecting the Constitution.”
Jackson established the panels and invited the speakers. The entire format had a liberal bent, of course, as Democrats hold a super majority in California’s Legislature.
Katy Grimes in the FlashReport characterized what occurred in this manner:
“But the committee chaired by Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, didn’t present any balance – it was only speech with which she agreed that was allowed at the hearing.”
My office decided to contact Ben Shapiro, as a recent Cal Antifa victim, to see if he could participate. It turned out that his in-laws resided in the Sacramento area and he would be in the Capital City the day of the hearing.
My office contacted Senator Jackson’s office some nine times to get Shapiro on one of the panels, to no avail. Even though Shapiro had graduated from Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor, cum laude, Jackson preferred to have Erwin Chemerinsky, who also graduated from Harvard Law School, Juris Doctor, cum laude, who recently became the Dean of Cal’s Law School, as a solo speaker.
Ironically, Chemerinsky spoke for a good hour but recently became the victim of hate speech on his own campus, getting a taste of the plight conservatives on college campuses endure, in October of 2023, when he stared antisemitism directly in the face from pro-Hamas students. He would even cry on the shoulders of LA Times readers with his op-ed, titled “Nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism I see on college campuses now.” Welcome to the real world, Erwin. You were a party to Jackson’s biased and rude treatment of Shapiro. Chemerinsky now knows what it is like when the shoe is on the other foot.
What made the hearing more interesting is that Shapiro decided to attend. I would say that he was invited. The mainstream media would declare that he “crashed the hearing.” He sat in the audience through the entire hearing, where, at its conclusion, members of the public were permitted to speak.
Jackson spent more than two minutes informing Shapiro that he only had two minutes to speak. And in those two minutes, Shapiro gave a better explanation of free speech and the “heckler’s veto,” “which must be stopped,” than all the previous speakers.
Katy Grimes was present and provided the following description:
“His two minutes were more effective than the entire 3 ½ hours of pompous, self-congratulatory political grandstanding, and virtue signaling by all of the other speakers combined.”
The next day, the LA Times would provide the essence of Shapiro’s remarks:
“’This intent for some of the folks on the left to conflate speech they don’t like with hate speech and suggest there are legislative remedies is in violation of 1st Amendment ideals, and legislation to actually push that would be a violation of the 1st Amendment itself,’ Shapiro told reporters after the hearing.”
And the lead editorial in the Sacramento Bee, which questioned my motives, more severely chastised the motives of those on the left.
“Perhaps Moorlach’s invitation to Shapiro was a stunt. If it was, so what? Politicians routinely pull stunts to illustrate points. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats unwittingly helped make the Republicans’ point. By not listening politely for 10 minutes, they gave Shapiro 120 seconds of fame and then some.”
The Daily Wire provided an excellent observation from Shapiro to close its article on the inability of the Democrats in Sacramento to reduce actual hate speech and violence:
“Interviewed later by a reporter who asked why he had decided to come to Sacramento to testify, Shapiro responded, ‘I was asked by legislative Republicans to come here; they wanted to actually have me on one of the panels, but Democrats wouldn’t allow that sort of thing because that might be too much free speech … so I was glad to hear from all those people, but it would have been nice if they would have allowed one person from the Right to actually talk for more than 120 seconds.’”
It’s eight years later, and Antifa is still able to wreak havoc on the Cal campus. Those on the far left at Cal and Sac are the haters. It’s a brave thing for a conservative thinker to speak in both places. So, Rob Schneider, please know that you were not the first victim of Antifa violence on the Cal campus. And, be assured, with the current Governor and Democratic-controlled State Legislature in California, you won’t be the last one to suffer violent “hate speech” from the left.
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Calfornia is a cesspool.
California is a beautiful place being destroyed by some really ugly filthy dirty people.
Grok summary:
In a recent Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley, comedian Rob Schneider—previously blacklisted in Hollywood for opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates—was harassed by Antifa protesters while serving as a presenter. Author John Moorlach, a former California State Senator, laments the irony, noting Berkeley’s legacy as the 1964 birthplace of the free speech movement, yet its persistent tolerance of left-wing disruptions. He recalls Antifa’s 2017 violence that forced the cancellation of a Ben Shapiro speech, costing $600,000 in security, and a Sacramento hearing where Shapiro was sidelined, decrying efforts to legislate against “hate speech.” Moorlach accuses Democratic leaders of enabling Antifa’s aggression, framing conservatives as victims of ideological intolerance.
Key quote from Shapiro: “This intent for some of the folks on the left to conflate speech they don’t like with hate speech and suggest there are legislative remedies is in violation of 1st Amendment ideals.”
The left wanted “free speech” when they were out of power.
Now that they have power (in areas like the West Coast) they are against it.
George Orwell wrote "1984" and "Animal Farm" as a warning to future generations. The left use them as an instructional manual.
America was better when it was whiter and more conservative. I miss those days
Why? Most of these antifa thugs are spoiled rich white kids and many are homosexual and or bisexuals. The problem isn't skin color as much as it is ideology.
Selective editing.. your worse then the MSM.
You left out... and more conservative.
Conservative isn’t antifa, homosexual or bisexual..
leftist ideology which is also part of the skin color issue and their obsessive DEI, WOKE and slavery, reparations BS.
Free speech for Jimmy Kimmel, but not Rob Schneider.
.
It’s ultra ironic because Berkeley is the home of “free speech.”
Free Republic surrounded by a cesspool.
Nod to "26 square miles surrounded by reality" said about college town of Ann Arbor, MI and earlier about Madison, WI.
I watched American Pastoral for the first time. From Philip Roth novel about the horrifying consequences of the suburban families’ children becoming antiwar SDS types and their evolution into killers using bombs.
I hadn’t realized something like 3,500 bombs were set off at the Pentagon, recruiting offices, post offices, federal buildings, campus buildings and townhouses in NYC (by an accidental bombmaking mistake).
Those despicable types are back as “woke” “BLM” and “resistance to Trump” types.
American Pastoral trailer. Long before the stupid Covid masks, the disturbed daughter wears a “veil” mask just like we’re used to seeing. Weird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=079zFCh81L4
“3,500 bombs”
I lived through that era. Never knew it was that many. The commies and anarchists were all over murdering, protesting, and blowing things up.
Antifa = Anti FA = Anti First Amendment
Who are the fascists again?
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