Last year, when former representative Tom Tancredo (who is probably most famous for his stance against illegal immigration but addresses other issues as well) spoke at UNC-Chapel Hill, the local SDS chapter fomented a riot and prevented Tancredo from finishing his talk. (I do not recall any of the leftist pontificators who are so worked up over the alleged violent tendencies of the tea party saying anything in opposition to the actual violence employed with such relish by their SDS buddies.)

Yesterday, Tancredo was back at UNC to talk about Western Civilization, and this time, there was no violence and no attempt to shout him down, although the SDSers did pull off one protest tactic — acquiring a large number of the tickets and staging a mass walkout. Apparently, these people think that it’s some sort of intellectual victory to keep others from hearing a speaker they dislike.

And of course, there were the usual idiotic statements by protesters, such as “Western Civilization is nothing but an alteration of the discourse of white supremacy.” The student who wrote that ought to ponder the fact that Western civilization put an end to the slave trade. (Almost, anyway; it still exists in some places in Africa.)

My Pope Center colleagues Jay Schalin and Jenna Robinson have an excellent piece today in American Thinker that covers the event.