# How does Milo Yiannopoulos exist, exactly? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 19, 2016, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298 "2016-07-19T08:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/481 "2017-02-22T16:55:42Z")
[Great article](https://psmag.com/on-the-milo-bus-with-the-lost-boys-of-americas-new-right-629a77e87986#.vyq0601su) by a writer who hung out with Milo’s posse on his bus tour. Read the whole thing, but here’s a taste: > [@](#): > > It is horribly ironic that of all the disgusting nonsense Yiannopoulos has said — about women, about Muslims, about transgender people, about immigrants — it is only now that the moderate right appears to have reached the limits of what it will tolerate in the name of free speech. The hypocrisy is clarion-clear: This was never, in fact, about free speech at all. It was about making it OK to say racist, sexist, transphobic, and xenophobic things, about tolerating the public expression of those views right up to the point where it becomes financially unwise to do so. Those suddenly dropping Yiannopoulos are making a business decision, not a moral one — and yes, even in Donald Trump’s America, there’s still a difference. If that difference devours Yiannopoulos and his minions, they will find few mourners. > > Yiannopoulos followed the path of least resistance until, suddenly, it resisted. Now he knows just what it is to have the Internet turn on you and take away your control of the narrative. Now the entire alt-right is realizing, in full view of a few million popcorn-munching online leftists, that they were never the new punk. They were never the suave and seductive blackshirts of the new American authoritarianism. They are, at best, the brownshirts, and they are becoming less useful to their benefactors by the day. Where they were once “underground,” they are now are an ankle-biting embarrassment to the movement they made mainstream — and they have no clue what to do next. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/482 "2017-02-22T17:01:24Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > But you also said this: > > I think I see the problem here. You see the second paragraph I quoted? The one that starts “I also suspect…”? That’s something you made up. It’s the fascists in the Breit House (clever, no?) who tolerated him until it was no longer politically convenient to do so. Your straw man doesn’t stand up. You got me there, I made up an opinion on an issue, guilty as charged. You don’t make up your own opinions? How do you go about in life, let other people think them up for you? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Sanchez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rick\_Sanchez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/483 "2017-02-22T17:06:53Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > It’s weird to me that you think GamerGate and the Leslie Jones affair have gone away. They haven’t gone away. They reveal a cancer at the heart of the internet, and the right wing has gleefully denied chemotherapy and radiation. I’m going to get roasted for this as well, but there’s a peculiar bit of hypocrisy that always seems to escape comment. As unseemly as the Yiannopoulos/Jones affair was, Milo never explicitly sicced his followers on Leslie Jones. Yeah, he made fun of her. Yeah, he re-tweeted obviously fake tweets that purported to be from her but weren’t. But he never actually told anyone to attack Leslie Jones. He never actually said _“Hey everybody, let’s go rip on Leslie Jones”_. Despite this, everyone seems to think that he did. For millions of people, the only thing they know about Milo is _“He led a hate mob against Leslie Jones!!”_, even though he didn’t - at least, not explicitly. Lesley Jones, however, actually _did_ explicitly sic her followers onto somebody. What I mean by that is she actually said _“Hey everybody! Go get this bitch!”_. Leslie Jones literally commanded her audience of hundreds of thousands to attack some random internet troll with about 40 followers. That’s literally an actual thing that she did. Just something to remember the next time someone uses the Leslie Jones affair to pretend Milo is literally Hitler or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/484 "2017-02-22T17:15:00Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > You got me there I know. Wasn’t hard. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/485 "2017-02-22T17:19:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > I’m going to get roasted for this as well, but there’s a peculiar bit of hypocrisy that always seems to escape comment. As unseemly as the Yiannopoulos/Jones affair was, Milo never explicitly sicced his followers on Leslie Jones. Yeah, he made fun of her. Yeah, he re-tweeted obviously fake tweets that purported to be from her but weren’t. But he never actually told anyone to attack Leslie Jones. He never actually said _“Hey everybody, let’s go rip on Leslie Jones”_. Despite this, everyone seems to think that he did. For millions of people, the only thing they know about Milo is _“He led a hate mob against Leslie Jones!!”_, even though he didn’t - at least, not explicitly. Charles Manson never told his family to go out and kill people either. How’d that work out as a defense? > [@](#): > > Lesley Jones, however, actually did explicitly sic her followers onto somebody. What I mean by that is she actually said “Hey everybody! Go get this bitch!”. Leslie Jones literally commanded her audience of hundreds of thousands to attack some random internet troll with about 40 followers. That’s literally an actual thing that she did. I’ve not seen such a tweet. But no matter: please tell us what Nyberg or Harper did to deserve Milo’s mob attention? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/486 "2017-02-22T17:27:09Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > My opinion is that he gets an extra level of venom and vitriol thrown his way because he is saying things a gay man shouldn’t be saying, it throws a wrench in the Identity Politics works. No, the reason Yiannopoulos gets venom and vitriol thrown his way is because he’s saying things that **nobody** should be saying. Such as encouraging online harassment/doxxing campaigns, misogynistic and racist (and even homophobic) trolling, malicious lies such as posting faked tweets from Leslie Jones on Twitter, etc. etc. (Not to mention, of course, the pedophilia-apologism thing, which has been floating around the web for a year and which many gay and non-gay liberals were already aware of, even if Yiannopoulos’s conservative and white-nationalist fanbois are just now discovering it.) > [@Ale](#): > > It’s not just him, I have observed the same being done against other people that don’t do or think what is expected of them. > I gave the example of a black person being called an Uncle Tom for not agreeing with BLM […] None of this is really relevant to why liberals despise Yiannopoulos. There are plenty of conservative gay pundits like Andrew Sullivan (and conservative female pundits, conservative black pundits, etc.) who “don’t do or think what is expected of them”, at least in your simplistic view of liberal “expectations”. These people don’t get the flak that Yiannopoulos gets. Because it’s not about being a conservative member of a group that have historically been victims of conservative bigotry, as you’re trying to argue. It’s about being a malicious inflammatory shit-stirring hateful asshole. Andrew Sullivan, much as I disagree with him on many issues, is a gay conservative who is (mostly) **not** a malicious inflammatory shit-stirring hateful asshole. Yiannopoulos, on the other hand, is a gay conservative who **is** a malicious inflammatory shit-stirring hateful asshole. **That’s** why he’s so vehemently despised whereas Sullivan is not. > [@Ale](#): > > In the case of Yiannopoulus it’s a double whammy, as I said, him as a gay man shouldn’t be saying those things, and right wingers shouldn’t be welcoming a gay man among them, it runs against the stereotype, the horror! Your insistently repeating this wishful-thinking fantasy doesn’t make it true. If you really think that opportunistically cozying up to a hateful racist misogynist troll like Yiannopoulos made conservatives look “welcoming” to gays in general, you’re delusional. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/487 "2017-02-22T17:32:26Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > [Great article](https://psmag.com/on-the-milo-bus-with-the-lost-boys-of-americas-new-right-629a77e87986#.vyq0601su) by a writer who hung out with Milo’s posse on his bus tour. > > Read the whole thing, but here’s a taste: Do you think the part were the writer advocates violence is great too? _“students and allies are entitled to throw fireworks and smash things until the trolls run away. Which is exactly what has happened.”_ _“the whole place is evacuated because of the real possibility of everyone inside getting a serious — and arguably deserved — kicking.”_ Pretty rich for the author to later say: _“These are men, in short, who have founded an entire movement on the basis of refusing to handle their emotions like adults.”_ By the way, **The Tooth** , you may want to chew on this part **“I don’t believe that Yiannopoulos endorses pedophilia”** ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Sanchez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rick\_Sanchez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/488 "2017-02-22T17:35:44Z")
> [@Mr Miskatonic](#): > > Charles Manson never told his family to go out and kill people either. How’d that work out as a defense? Umm…pretty sure he did, actually. > [@](#): > > I’ve not seen such a tweet. Google it. > [@](#): > > But no matter: please tell us what Nyberg or Harper did to deserve Milo’s mob attention? Nope. No idea who they are and don’t particularly care. Besides, most people who hate Milo hate him because of what he did-but-actually-didn’t-do to Leslie Jones. They’ve never heard of Nyberg or Harper either. Get it straight: I don’t like Milo. I’m not a fan. I think he’s an asshole. But I also think the people who carry on like he’s literally Hitler are assholes too. He isn’t. He’s just an internet douchebag who managed to parlay his web presence into 15 minutes of notoriety because idiot leftists decided to treat his every utterance like an appendix to Mein Kampf. This relentless overreaction is not only stupid and boring, it’s dangerous too. It’s dangerous because if people keep diluting words like ‘Nazi’ and ‘White Supremacist’ by throwing them at cartoon characters like Milo, then no-one’s going to take sensible people seriously when they point out _actual_ Nazis and white supremacists. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/489 "2017-02-22T17:36:19Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I know. Wasn’t hard. No, you just had to violate the forum rules regarding altering the content of a post to make it look like you came up on top. Pathetic. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/490 "2017-02-22T17:39:11Z")
> [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > But I also think the people who carry on like he’s literally Hitler are assholes too. He isn’t… This relentless overreaction is not only stupid and boring, it’s dangerous too. Hey, doc? I think you’ve got some symptoms of something. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Sanchez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rick\_Sanchez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Sanchez)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/491 "2017-02-22T17:40:01Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Hey, doc? I think you’ve got some symptoms of something. Too subtle for me, sorry 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/492 "2017-02-22T17:42:11Z")
Dopers may find this link of interest: > **[12 Things You Won't Read About Milo Elsewhere](https://order-order.com/2017/02/22/12-things-wont-read-milo-elsewhere/)** > > Despite being tarred in the failing media as a white supremacist he has a penchant for picking up gay black men. For years he would leave late-night ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/493 "2017-02-22T17:44:36Z")
No, I didn’t have to. It was inadvertent. I’ll revise my post and add an ellipsis to be in accordance with the rule. [QUOTE=Ale] You got me there… [/Quote] I still know. You’re argument is based on positions you’ve imagined other people hold. You’re arguing with the nasty liberals in your head, not the people in the real world. Have fun. I imagine you’ll still lose. [QUOTE=Ale] “I don’t believe that Yiannopoulos endorses pedophilia” [/Quote] Well, you’re wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/494 "2017-02-22T17:45:25Z")
> [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > He’s just an internet douchebag who managed to parlay his web presence into 15 minutes of notoriety because idiot leftists decided to treat his every utterance like an appendix to Mein Kampf. Once again, you’re blaming liberals for boosting Yiannopoulos’s signal by **denouncing** him, while you completely ignore the deliberate complicity of conservatives in boosting Yiannopoulos’s signal by **publicizing** , **promoting** , and **paying** him. Some liberals may have been unwise or unprincipled in how they chose to **oppose** Yiannopoulos, but that pales in comparison to the foolishness and lack of principle of the conservatives who chose to **support** him. When conservatives fall all over themselves to give money and attention and legitimacy to a hateful douchebag just because they enjoy seeing liberals get upset about his hateful douchebaggery, it’s not the liberals who really end up looking like idiots there. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/495 "2017-02-22T17:49:49Z")
Well, goodness! I’m rarely accused of being too subtle. > [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > … they think Milo is literally Hitler > [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > There are (it seems) countless people who treat him like Hitler 2.0 > [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > Just something to remember the next time someone uses the Leslie Jones affair to pretend Milo is literally Hitler or whatever. > [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > But I also think the people who carry on like he’s literally Hitler are assholes too. > [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > This relentless overreaction is not only stupid and boring, it’s dangerous too. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/496 "2017-02-22T17:53:06Z")
> [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > Umm…pretty sure he did, actually. > > Google it. > > Nope. No idea who they are and don’t particularly care. Besides, most people who hate Milo hate him because of what he did-but-actually-didn’t-do to Leslie Jones. They’ve never heard of Nyberg or Harper either. > > Get it straight: I don’t like Milo. I’m not a fan. I think he’s an asshole. But I also think the people who carry on like he’s literally Hitler are assholes too. He isn’t. He’s just an internet douchebag who managed to parlay his web presence into 15 minutes of notoriety because idiot leftists decided to treat his every utterance like an appendix to Mein Kampf. This relentless overreaction is not only stupid and boring, it’s dangerous too. It’s dangerous because if people keep diluting words like ‘Nazi’ and ‘White Supremacist’ by throwing them at cartoon characters like Milo, then no-one’s going to take sensible people seriously when they point out _actual_ Nazis and white supremacists. Harper rings a bell, buy Nyberg I remember; she is a self professed, honest to goodness pedophile (you may search for her leaked chat logs). I’ll let the irony of that name being thrown into the rink sink in. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/497 "2017-02-22T17:58:54Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Do you think the part were the writer advocates violence is great too? > > _“students and allies are entitled to throw fireworks and smash things until the trolls run away. Which is exactly what has happened.”_ > > _“the whole place is evacuated because of the real possibility of everyone inside getting a serious — and arguably deserved — kicking.”_ > > Pretty rich for the author to later say: _“These are men, in short, who have founded an entire movement on the basis of refusing to handle their emotions like adults.”_ > > By the way, **The Tooth** , you may want to chew on this part **“I don’t believe that Yiannopoulos endorses pedophilia”** Here’s the full first quote: > [@](#): > > Rewind two weeks. It’s a wet night in Berkeley, California, and Yiannopoulos is running away from the left. He was scheduled to speak at the University of California–Berkeley, but the event has been shut down. It was shut down because thousands of anti-racist and anti-fascist protesters decided that there should be no platform for what they called white supremacy. They are marching to say that free speech does not extend to hate speech, that the First Amendment should not oblige institutions to invite professional trolls to spout an auto-generated word-salad of Internet bigotry just for fun, and that, if the institutions disagree, students and allies are entitled to throw fireworks and smash things until the trolls run away. Which is exactly what has happened. She didn’t advocate for anything in this paragraph. She reported what happened, including the position of the protesters. There was no advocacy from the writer in this paragraph. You misread it or are deliberately mischaracterizing it. I disagree with her “arguably deserved” aside from the second quote. Such asides, even if they aren’t meant seriously, should probably be avoided due to the extreme fragility of so many (not all!) Trump supporters and conservatives right now. These special snowflakes can only handle so much negative language. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/498 "2017-02-22T17:59:14Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > No, I didn’t have to. It was inadvertent. I’ll revise my post and add an ellipsis to be in accordance with the rule. > > I still know. You’re argument is based on positions you’ve imagined other people hold. You’re arguing with the nasty liberals in your head, not the people in the real world. Have fun. I imagine you’ll still lose. > > Well, you’re wrong. I’m not wrong for saying that, because I didn’t say that. If you wouldn’t have, again, altered the content of my post you (and anyone else) could see that the quoted text is not my words but a quote from an article **iiandyiiii** linked to. And I don’t believe for a second that you inadvertently edited my post to change its meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/499 "2017-02-22T17:59:45Z")
> [@Rick\_Sanchez](#): > > I’m going to get roasted for this as well, And deservedly so. > [@](#): > > but there’s a peculiar bit of hypocrisy that always seems to escape comment. As unseemly as the Yiannopoulos/Jones affair was, Milo never explicitly sicced his followers on Leslie Jones. Yeah, he made fun of her. Yeah, he re-tweeted obviously fake tweets that purported to be from her but weren’t. But he never actually told anyone to attack Leslie Jones. He never actually said _“Hey everybody, let’s go rip on Leslie Jones”_. Despite this, everyone seems to think that he did. For millions of people, the only thing they know about Milo is _“He led a hate mob against Leslie Jones!!”_, even though he didn’t - at least, not explicitly. “Nice place a’ bizness ya got here. Shame if somethin’ wuz ta _happen_ to it… What!? I didn’t say nothin’ – at least not explicitly…” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298/500 "2017-02-22T18:07:03Z")
You should attribute quotes properly in order to avoid similar confusion in future. [QUOTE=Ale] And I don’t believe for a second that you inadvertently edited my post to change its meaning. [/Quote] Well, you’re wrong. I just omitted an ellipsis. And I didn’t change it’s meaning. If you had originally said something like “I needed a ride to the post office and you got me there. Thanks for giving me a ride, **The Tooth**!” then I would have been changing the meaning of your post. But that’s not what you posted. What you posted was an admission that I had correctly identified your argument as lacking merit. I left everything else out because it was not relevant. Sorry for missing the ellipsis, I’m sure with therapy you’ll recover. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-milo-yiannopoulos-exist-exactly/760298.md?page=26)