The free speech wars had another important battle this week. Instead of exchanging ideas, they exchanged fists.

UC Berkeley was once again the battleground for a free speech war as anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters clashed.

Lauren Southern, a right-wing political commentator, arranged a rally in the defense of free speech in response to the treatment of Milo Yiannopoulos received at the University two months ago. This was brought to the attention of the Berkeley Antifa. But this time, Trump supporters were ready to fight back.

There shouldn’t be any violence in the first place. This isn’t something that needs to be stated, but the Antifa in Berkeley doesn’t seem to understand.

Many media outlets picked up on a viral video in which an Antifa member, Louise Rosealma, was punched by Nathan Domingo, a white-supremacist. The left began to portray Louise as a victim even though in a Facebook post she stated that she wanted to “bring back 100 nazi scalps.”

But violence begets violence. The Antifa should have known this after the Milo debacle. Given their stance on free speech, it’s clear that silencing speech is their main goal with no concern over how they achieve it.

Free speech is for everyone. Even nazis and white supremacists. This kind of behavior will only ensure another Trump election victory in 2020, but the left doesn’t seem to understand that.

This is a perfect example of the “soft” racism that the left and white liberals are guilty of. White liberals are so obsessed with not being seen as racist that they hold such low standards for people of color and don’t hold them accountable for anything.

We are not children, we can think for ourselves. Letting Richard Spencer speak won’t hurt us. In fact, it’ll do the opposite. It’ll expose people like him for the frauds they really are. Bad ideas are pushed aside in civil discourse.

Richard Spencer’s recent speech at Auburn University in Alabama is an example of why free speech is so important.

He called for an end of SEC football because black athletes are more prone to sexually assaulting white women and that they don’t identify with “white” culture.

In a question asked by a student asking for a citation of sources, Richard Spencer simply replied with, “Facts are lame, I want to talk about the things that really matter here.”

This was the weakest possible response. But, that type of response is similar to what some social justice warriors do. And right wingers hate it.

Ann Coulter also just recently had her speech canceled at UC Berkeley due to concerns regarding security.

UC Berkeley, once the head of the free speech movement in the 1960s that promoted human rights and political expression, has now come to completely destroy the principles that it held so dear.

In order to preserve our freedoms, free speech must be protected at all costs.

There is no alternative, this is the only way we can preserve our democracy and protect our rights as humans. There is no way we can allow for this battle of ideas to be lost.

Roberto Fonseca can be reached at [email protected] or @rjfonseca13 on Twitter.