Filed under: Analysis, Anti-fascist, US
We can go on about all the crap that Milo Yiannopoulos has gotten away with over the years, but for now we’ll just enjoy the fact that he can’t anymore.
When neo-Fascist writer Milo Yiannopoulos appeared at Berkeley College as part of his “Dangerous Faggot” speaking tour, antifa were out to oppose him as they have at many of his tour stops. And as has been the case in a few of those stops things flared up to the point that a full-on riot ensued. In the end, Yiannopoulos had his appearance canceled and conservatives from the lowliest of bloggers to Donald Trump himself were angered.
The fallout from the Berkeley appearance prompted people to take more of a look at Yiannopoulos and many have attempted to defend him. In addition to op-ed pieces defending his right to free speech, political commentator Tucker Carlson and comedian Bill Maher both invited him onto their program, with Maher’s program becoming particularly incendiary with Maher first cozying up to Yiannopoulos in what had been termed a bromance, then after Yiannopoulos remarked that “women and girls should be protected from having men who are confused about their sexual identities from their bathrooms,” to which Maher replied, “That’s not unreasonable,” and with comedian and fellow guest Larry Wilmore told him to “Go fuck yourself” when Yiannopoulos told Maher he should get smarter guests. But it was when the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) announced that Yiannopoulos was going to be the keynote speaker at this year’s outing this weekend, and conservative Twitter as well as the conservative National Review particularly exploded from the news, because all the coverage of Yiannopoulos made it clear that antifa had been right about him all along.
Within 24 hours of radio show host Glenn Beck’s website The Blaze published two videos showing Yiannopoulos endorsing pedophilia, CPAC organizers rescinded their speaking invitation to him. Later that day, book publishers Simon & Schuster, withdrew their offer to publish his book, an offer that was widely criticized when it was announced. Tuesday afternoon Yiannopoulos announced that he was resigning as an editor at Breitbart, the website who’s former CEO Steve Bannon, now a senior advisor to the Trump Administration called a “platform for the ‘alt-right,’” the term applied to a particular circle of White Supremacists and neo-Fascists.
At an afternoon press conference in New York City, Yiannopoulos attempted to paint himself as a victim, saying he had always felt his experience as a survivor of sexual abuse as a child allowed him to say anything. “This is a cynical media witch hunt for those who don’t care about children,” he told reporters.
He also denied that he was supportive of pedophiles, saying that the released videos were doctored and noting that he has exposed three sex offenders in his life, saying further that they were “three more than my critics.” In recent days however, one writer had taken to Twitter incensed that it is only now that people are taking such charges seriously when she has written about such support on his part in the past. Nina Illingworth noted that none of the 20 media outlets she shopped her story to last April were interested, even though much of the material she used as evidence were videos that are being seen today.
He had nothing but high praise for his former employer telling the assembled media that he is resigning to protect the employees of Breitbart from any scrutiny he could likely bring. “My employer Breitbart stood by me while others caved,” he said. This praise comes despite news reports that at least a half dozen Breitbart employees threatened to leave if Yiannopoulos remained.
Yiannopoulos also announced at the press conference that he was starting a new “media venture” which will be part of what he calls his “Troll Academy Tour” of colleges, and that his planned book now rejected by Simon and Schuster has other interested publishers and will still come out with 10% royalties to child sex abuse charities.
While the room was packed with reporters for the presser, reportedly Fox News Business was the only mainstream media outlet to cover the presser live and blogs and websites friendly to Yiannopoulos were live streaming the event on various platforms. Meanwhile antifa were outside demonstrating against him and eventually chasing his car as he sped away from the building. Ali Akbar, who in October held a neo-Fascist “art show” in New York where Yiannopoulos bathed in what he said was pig’s blood stood outside published at least one picture on Twitter that came from the Twitter account of conservative writer Ryan Girdusky of the blog Red Alert Politics. Lucian Wintrich of Twinks4Trump, who co-organized the “art show” with Akbar, was inside covering the press conference for the Gateway Pundit a right-wing blog.
Prior to the presser, one tweet from antifa noted how the past few days have been a victory for them, as it was particularly them that was trying to sound the alarm against Yiannopoulos for a number of years while many ignored or rationalized him instead.
#Antifa/Berkeley increased media scrutiny re Milo & led to his downfall. Next time a liberal says "ignore them & they'll go away" smack 'em.
— #RIPBassemMasri ? (@Delo_Taylor) February 21, 2017