We asked what you think about Milo Yiannopoulos coming to Bristol

The Bristol Journalism society have annoyed a lot of people by inviting controversial journalist Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at their event in November.

FemSoc aren’t happy about him coming to Bristol and Bristol grad and Telegraph journalist Rebecca Reid even got involved, supporting the boycott and calling Milo a “talentless troll”.

Milo has previously been banned from the University of Manchester for making transphobic comments and denying rape culture.

He also tweets stuff like this

We asked Bristol students how they feel about the event. Should Milo be banned? Would you support a boycott of the event?

Riley, Psychology

“I think he should come, but we should debate him. We should be allowed to have people like him come and speak to us but we should also have a chance to speak against him so he’d have to sit down and listen to our views as well.”

Chris, Languages

“There’s no point in censoring extreme views. The university and union in general is very left-leaning but it’s important to deconstruct extreme right-wing arguments, even if we don’t agree with them at all.”

Matilda, Chemistry

“Personally I wouldn’t attend the talk because I’m not interested but I wouldn’t forbid anyone from talking and expressing their opinion, even if it’s very different to my own.”

Bilal, Economics

“Even if his views don’t match with your own, we should still hear him out. He may be a horrible person but I think we should still hear what he has to say and even if we don’t agree with it we need to respect that that’s someone’s opinion.”

“I probably wouldn’t go to the talk because I don’t really follow his views but I don’t believe boycotting it is the way to go. Everyone’s allowed to speak and express their own opinion.”

George, Ancient History

“I think they’re definitely right to boycott it. I saw on Facebook it’s going to impact our ‘Safe Space Policy’ and I don’t think we should be inviting people to speak if it’s going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. They know there’s issues with it and I think it’s definitely something that we should take action against.”

Dan, English and Philosophy

“My friend wants me to go with him to the talk. He thinks it’s going to be better because it’s contentious and I’m kind of excited to go. I can understand the FemSoc’s stance but I think it’s going to be an interesting talk.”

Hattie, History