Freedom of Speech Suppressed in Berkeley 

Last night Breitbart Senior Editor Milo Yiannopoulos was forced to cancel a scheduled presentation at UC Berkeley and be evacuated as rioters violently attacked attendees, set fire to the campus, and destroyed public and private property. Regardless of how you feel about his views or the tone of his presentations, as Satanists we should be wary of this rising tide of violence against freedom of expression and speech.

We recognize that our own views and philosophical works are not of the masses and can be easily taken out of context and used as justification for persecution. During the Satanic Panic we were called every derogatory term under the sun, from child & animal killers to neo-fascists, regardless of our actual stances on respect for children and animals and upholding individualism and evaluating peers by “merit not inherit”.

Just as Satanists wouldn’t burn books—we read them and intelligently critique their content—when speakers are offered a platform, whether they are controversial or popular, there are civilized ways to offer discourse, criticism and alternative perspectives. Examining ideas is central to our philosophy, so that we can rationally select which to embrace and which to reject. To quote Stefan Molyneux: “Those who make conversations impossible, make escalation inevitable.”

—Reverend M. Hunter