Angelo Isidoro is the president of the Free Speech Club at the University of British Columbia, and he is driving the campus SJW's absolutely wild by bringing in a diverse slate of conservative commentators to speak at his school. And he refuses to be bullied.
00:00:00.000Hello Rebels, I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, The Gunn Show.
00:00:06.560Now tonight I'm talking to one of the young people fighting for the future of conservatism.
00:00:11.280His name is Angelo Isidoro and he's the president of the University of British Columbia Free Speech Club
00:00:17.540and he is driving the campus SJWs absolutely wild by bringing in a diverse slate of conservative commentators
00:00:26.100to speak at his school and he refuses to be bullied.
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00:01:31.900Is free speech dead on campus and our radical leftists holding the bloody knife in their hands?
00:01:37.980Not as long as we have young people like my guest tonight fighting for freedom.
00:01:42.760I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gun Show.
00:02:03.320Are you starting to think that all the young people out there in the world, especially those on the West Coast, are, you know, certifiably crazy?
00:02:10.440It's pretty easy to think that way when that's the only time young people manage to get into the news when they are celebrated by the mainstream media for being radical totalitarian leftists,
00:02:22.360for trying to shut down free speech, for protesting democratic election results, or demanding quote-unquote free stuff like abortions, housing, tampons, etc.
00:02:31.760It can really seem like campus is becoming a hotbed for authoritarian censorship and groupthink bullying.
00:02:39.620And I think it largely is, but there are some kids out there, and I get to say kids because I am old enough to be their mom,
00:02:46.520who are fighting and agitating on university campuses for the ability to simply hear from someone who has different ideas.
00:02:54.700Now, the last time I talked to my guest tonight, he was trying to bring conservative commentator, author, businessman, and successful podcaster Ben Shapiro to speak at the University of British Columbia.
00:03:06.980Now, at the time, he was facing a lot of pushback from campus SJWs and administration, but he assured me that the show would indeed go on.
00:03:16.340And it did, to much success. So much success that he thought he would do it again with someone, I guess, even more controversial.
00:03:26.000So, joining me tonight is University of British Columbia student and free speech activist and, as it turns out, aspiring political hired gun,
00:03:35.480Angelo Isidoro, in an interview we recorded earlier in the week.
00:03:46.340So, joining me now from Vancouver is Angelo Isidoro.
00:03:58.580He is involved in the Free Speech Club at the University of British Columbia, and he's doing some interesting things out there.
00:04:07.120Last time I checked in on Angelo, he was bringing Ben Shapiro to town.
00:04:11.700And he was facing a lot of opposition, both from the wackadoodles who are on campus as students and the ones that also exist in administration.
00:04:46.960But then what happened was the AMS, which is the alma mater student union, they essentially came out against the event.
00:04:55.860They brought us into a meeting and they said that, you know, they would prefer the event to be canceled.
00:05:01.880And they couldn't cancel it because we're not part of the student union, thank God.
00:05:07.860So, what they did say, though, is that they will essentially be having the sexual assault center open night of.
00:05:17.180They're going to have all the safe spaces open night of.
00:05:19.620So, you know, it was just completely ridiculous.
00:05:22.420And they came out formally against the event because they said that it's essentially a threat to the community, a violent threat.
00:05:31.440So, I even saw some people night of posting on Twitter that they felt like they were in Charlottesville, which I felt is completely, completely ridiculous, right?
00:05:43.340Yeah, like I want to laugh, but it's also so appalling that they would compare Ben Shapiro having ideas, like this little Jewish fellow that could fit inside a teacup, having these ideas near them to a place where somebody died, where, you know, the tiki torches and the alt-right and all that disgusting stuff, plus somebody died.
00:06:06.740That's what they decided they were experiencing.
00:06:10.320It's insane, and Ben himself actually had the letter from the AMS, and he went on stage.
00:06:15.660The video of it is online, and he essentially read out each thing where he's saying that, you know, do they think I'm going to sexually assault someone here?
00:06:22.960What are they exactly thinking is going to happen?
00:06:25.280So, he completely came out against the AMS and trashed them on stage, which was fun.
00:06:32.880The whole crowd loved that, and it was a good event.
00:06:54.180It was people from the Jewish community.
00:06:55.460It was a great event, and it all went off perfectly.
00:06:58.540You know, I did see a lot of people from the Jewish community attend that event, which is pretty interesting for someone they like to paint as alt-right.
00:07:10.200And, you know, Ben Shapiro, he's known for his aggressive sexuality.
00:07:30.620And it was just incredible to me to stand there with all the rabbis from Vancouver, and they're doing this sermon, and I was included in it.
00:07:38.540And they, you know, to sit there and think, wow, people think that, you know, this person is a Nazi, even though, you know, it's just really, really, really mind-boggling.
00:07:51.740But it went off well, and now we are in talks to do a tour with Ben.
00:07:57.740It's still not official, but if you're living in Calgary and you're living in Toronto, I would keep my eyes open, because we might have some announcements coming soon.
00:08:11.360Now, you were wise to not have your free speech club part of the Students' Union.
00:08:18.600Like, yes, it's probably nice that you would qualify for some funding, but you're also not beholden to those yahoos and those social justice crazy people.
00:08:30.140What's the student involvement like in your group?
00:08:36.360And, look, we definitely get questions like that where other people in other schools are asking, well, you know, I want to be part of the student union because I get funding and access to rooms.
00:08:45.600But it's essentially a scam, as far as I can tell.
00:08:50.260Like, there's really no point to have a student union.
00:08:53.160I mean, if it was in the right hands, it would be run as a good collective way where we can share and so on and so forth.
00:09:00.300But it's essentially a bunch of 18-year-old megalomaniacs who just want to control everything.
00:09:06.140So, you know, if you have your own student group or you want to start your own student group, just do it privately.
00:09:33.960So it's the best thing we ever did, essentially.
00:09:37.960You know, it's for people like me who often say, hey, you know, those universities, they are just social justice factories, just cranking out whiners.
00:09:48.040It's really interesting to see the alumni come out and reaffirm that for me.
00:10:10.880I think from their perspective, they felt as though they got complaints of people saying that they feel unsafe, sexually unsafe, physically unsafe by having been on campus.
00:10:21.960And they thought that I essentially am the ringleader of what will be, you know, anarchy on campus and widespread violence and evil.
00:10:30.420So in their mind, they really saw themselves as heroes.
00:10:35.140They were convinced that they are fighting against our oppression of bringing this monster to campus, which is ironic because they control, like, the nest, which is the main hub of the school.
00:10:47.200Like, they have ultimate power when it comes to the school.
00:10:50.160And it's really weird because, like, a lot of professors agree with us.
00:10:53.780A lot of the faculties agree with us and support free speech.
00:10:57.660It's really just this 18-year-old megalomaniac bureaucracy that is really against us.
00:11:07.800There's even a men's rights group that is trying to get AMS approval now.
00:11:13.200And the guy running that did, you know, he had, like, a little booth outside of the main building.
00:11:18.260And essentially, the AMS, I don't know how they pulled it off, but they banned this student from the nest, which, again, is the building that has all the coffee shops and the offices and all that sort of thing.
00:11:28.520He is, like, literally banned from the grounds.
00:11:31.140Even though he's a student and he pays to fund the nest, he is not allowed to step foot on the nest.
00:11:37.360Yeah, I mean, I'm a mom of a 20-year-old, and when I go away with his sisters for the weekend for basketball or whatever, I'm always just grateful that the dog is still alive and the house is standing.
00:11:52.720And so I wouldn't put him in charge of who shows up to talk, although I believe his choices would probably be pretty good being my kid and sort of being a well-adjusted young man.
00:12:04.860But to put him in charge of who hears what ideas, I think that's crazy.
00:12:15.700That brings me to the next speaker that you brought to campus, because I feel like he's a totally different kind of conservative than Ben Shapiro.
00:12:25.180You brought, I guess, some would say controversial comedian Owen Benjamin to campus.
00:12:32.180And he's been deplatformed by just about everywhere except for YouTube.
00:12:38.940But you brought him there, and how did that go?
00:12:41.740Well, the interesting thing about Owen is that we couldn't host it on campus because no venue would approve it.
00:12:47.720And we couldn't really, we couldn't host it almost anywhere in the city.
00:12:51.080We went through so many theaters, including one very popular theater, which did book it.
00:12:56.540And then as soon as they found out who he was, they sent me a long email talking about how he's a racist and how he cyberbullies the Parkland kids, and they're canceling it.
00:13:06.200So at some point, I was really torn on what to do because no venue would host it.
00:13:12.060And then the weirdest thing happened, my church essentially had a space where we can host it.
00:13:18.800So the Greek Orthodox Church in 2019 seems to be the least prudish organization that was totally okay to us hosting it.
00:13:28.720So we hosted the Owen Benjamin comedy show in the Greek Orthodox Church here in Vancouver.
00:13:34.080Oh, that is, that's so fascinating that the social justice left, who believe like in all manner of sexual strange things are perfectly okay and behave however you like, and everything is fine and everything goes.
00:13:50.320They really are the new Quakers when it comes to ideas.
00:13:53.860And the Christian church is the one that says, yeah, show up, save it, do your thing, talk about whatever you want.
00:14:00.020It's, it's so weird how the switch has flipped.
00:14:04.500Yeah, yeah, it definitely, it's happened.
00:14:06.760I mean, I remember growing up, I remember the days when like, like Fox News was kind of the prudish organization where all they're going against video games or, you know, anything that was kind of edgy.
00:14:18.940And then I think at some point, it must have been in like 2012, 2013, 2014, there was some kind of gradual switch where I think essentially the left,
00:14:30.020has had power for so long that they kind of determined the zeitgeist or the Overton window to such a degree where now you have this new generation of kids coming up, the generation Z that is like projected to be the most conservative generation since World War II.
00:14:44.380So that's kind of interesting to me that, that there has been a switch.
00:14:49.060There's been a cultural switch where the people in control are now leftists.
00:14:54.480And ironically, you know, the place where we're hosting really, really, really raunchy comedy shows are Christian churches.
00:15:05.940So, you know, I was, again, I was talking about this with my son when I wasn't scolding him for whatever 20 year olds need to be scolded for when they still live under your roof.
00:15:17.620I was talking about how I generally don't disagree with a lot of the mindset, a set of the 17 year old boy.
00:15:27.420You know, yeah, the people in power generally suck.
00:15:32.860Your teachers quite often are stupid or at least they're trying to brainwash you.
00:15:38.540And at some point kids sort of figure that out.
00:15:41.040And yeah, I don't like being told what to do either.
00:15:45.100And, you know, I suppose my best advice for young people that generation Z that's probably going to change the world is just be patient because one day you're going to be the idiots in charge.
00:15:56.720And, you know, I really feel like they have the generation Z, it's more they don't like being told what to do.
00:16:05.320And they're embracing that style of conservatism that and as society, we need for them to hang on to that because that's the only way these onerous regulations on speech and behavior are ever going to be repealed.
00:16:21.020Is if we have a generation of people who are going to rise up and say, yeah, you're not telling me what to do anymore.
00:16:29.200I mean, I think the funny part is that the groups of people who are doing the most for conservatism in a way is the radical left.
00:16:37.640Because Generation Z is growing up watching these videos on YouTube of protests where you'll have someone who's conservative and very reasonable and then you'll have someone who's just screeching with purple hair.
00:16:49.380And they grow up watching that and it is low hanging fruit.
00:16:53.360And so in a way, these crazy protesters and these activists, they're doing they're doing us a great service by being completely insane.
00:17:01.320Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we need to remember, especially me as an older person.
00:17:08.640Anyways, I think we need to remember that those people look just as crazy to young people as they do to people my age.
00:17:17.040Their behavior is wild. It's crazy. It's irresponsible.
00:17:21.180And they really are the radical fringe, but they are embraced by the modern left.
00:17:26.840And I think they're driving people to conservatism or at least classical liberalism.
00:17:34.800Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're driving people to question the question everything.
00:17:39.520And that at the very least is something.
00:17:41.320I think the issue right now is that with young people, as far as I can tell, is that they're not allowed to question anything.
00:17:47.680And the worst thing you can say, you don't know this, the worst thing you can say to a teenager is don't say anything about this or don't ask about this or don't do this, because that makes them immediately want to ask and do that.
00:18:01.300So it doesn't work, especially when they're, you know, it's finger wagging and they're not really explaining themselves or articulating themselves.
00:18:08.640I mean, when you protest an event and say that it reminded you of Charlottesville and you were shaking, you're just living in a whole other reality.
00:18:20.420And I think, you know, it's still so insane to me to the point where you watch the video of the event and it's just a normal event and there's nothing, you know, insane going on.
00:18:33.260And yet you have groups of people who correlate it to like something really, really wrong.
00:18:39.840So it's a serious problem we have in the culture right now where we have two different tribes of people, essentially, who are interpreting reality differently.
00:18:49.320And I think when it comes to young people, they're definitely going to the conservative tribe because the conservative tribe is the only tribe that seems to be in reality.
00:18:59.380They seem to be the only ones that actually know what's actually happening.
00:19:48.180I just don't know how the two of you even traveled in the same circles.
00:19:52.180You are the campaign manager, is that right?
00:19:56.440For my friend, former Christian broadcaster, social conservative, libertarian type, Laura Lynn Tyler Thompson, in her attempt to become a People's Party of Canada MP in British Columbia.
00:21:01.800So, once those were done, they said, look, we're going to have by-elections in Burnaby South and out east and then in Nanaimo as well, although Nanaimo looks like it might not happen.
00:21:13.160And, you know, Laura Lynn was our first choice.
00:21:27.180She was going to be the candidate as far as they were concerned.
00:21:32.620And then the higher-ups kind of stifled her and gave her the boot.
00:21:35.680So, it's interesting how you kind of have a ragtag team of people who have all been rejected by the CPC, like Max, like, you know, Jennifer Clark, who's our candidate on the island, like Laura Lynn, who essentially said, fine, you know, if you think that we're too out there, if we're not politically correct enough, we'll do our own movement.
00:21:54.520And so, she's our girl for Burnaby South.
00:21:59.180And it's an interesting mix, you're right, because I come from a more free-speech libertarian side, and she's definitely more on the social conservative side.
00:22:09.000And I met her at, I think I met her, well, I spoke to her more so at a rally we did for Maxime when he was in town.
00:22:19.760We had something like 700 people standing in a super small room.
00:22:23.520It was a packed house, and I really bonded with her, and I could really see what she was trying to do.
00:22:29.900I didn't know much about her before that.
00:22:31.760I knew that she ran on the SOGI campaign, but I didn't know much.
00:22:37.280And, you know, I spent time with her, and I came to realize that she's a really, really strong speaker, and she has certain beliefs that she wants to bring to Parliament, and a lot of people want to see those beliefs in Parliament.
00:23:17.060Like, he doesn't, he's never been to Burnaby South.
00:23:20.820And this is really kind of do or die for him.
00:23:22.920He wouldn't admit that, but essentially, if he loses, he will probably step down as leader, just because he's not popular.
00:23:31.260The fundraising for the NDP is really, really not doing well, whereas for us, we just hit a million dollars in donations, so we're really happy about that.
00:23:40.780And, yeah, so it's going to be an interesting road ahead.
00:23:49.580You know, it's funny, again, this goes back to the point you were making before.
00:23:54.140The radical left is drawing these different tribes of conservatives together, whereas Laura Lynn is a social conservative.
00:24:03.240I think that's all pretty clear to everybody.
00:24:05.000But most importantly, Laura Lynn wants social conservatives and parents to be left alone.
00:24:10.860And I think that's where there's this meeting of the minds by libertarians and social conservatives where we're like, yeah, we just all want the same thing.
00:24:20.580And that's for everybody to get out of our faces, quit taking our money and giving it to bizarre programs, quit telling us how to talk, quit telling us how to raise our kids, get out of our way, get out of our businesses, get out of our pockets, get out of our families and leave us alone.
00:24:34.340And the more the left imposes themselves on our lives, the more united the tribes of conservatism come.
00:24:42.540So on some level, I welcome they're crazy.
00:25:08.220But nonetheless, we want to be left alone.
00:25:10.500And our society is divided by people who want to be left alone and people who won't leave us alone.
00:25:16.060So the people who won't leave us alone are really, really authoritarian at the moment.
00:25:21.840And that's incredibly unifying for us and our movement.
00:25:24.460So it is, it's an interesting alliance and we're seeing all kinds of people.
00:25:30.240That's been the most interesting thing for me is just meeting different people from the Chinese community because Burnaby South is really prominently Chinese who, you know, they feel the same.
00:25:39.700I have no idea that the Chinese are this conservative, but they are.
00:25:45.520And they, they know where they're coming from.
00:25:48.920You know, a lot of them who are immigrants, they know what it's like in China.
00:25:52.220And they don't want to see that happen to Canada.
00:25:55.180That's why they're, in many ways, the Chinese are the ultimate libertarians, the ultimate conservatives, because they know, you know, our fear is their reality.
00:26:07.000So it's interesting meeting people on the campaign trail where there's just so many amazing stories about what they've been through and why they're on board now with, with Laura Lynn and the PPC.
00:26:17.360Yeah, and I think also it's sort of in my experience with the Chinese community that so many of them went through the proper immigration channels and they really do resent people jumping the queue ahead of people like them who waited in line.
00:26:34.640So, you know, the Chinese community, like myself, I'm not against immigration at all.