Milo Yiannopoulos has put his fans through the wringer in the past several days.
On Thursday, you see, the alleged journalist and GamerGate darling didn’t show up for a talk he was scheduled to give at the University of Houston — with no warning or explanation.
When news of this hit Twitter, his fans realized he hadn’t Tweeted anything for a day, highly unusual behavior for the logorrheic Milo. Friends — and his colleagues at Breitbart — reported that he wasn’t responding to messages or picking up his phone.
At this point, some of his fans went into full panic mode. “Where’s Milo” posts sprung up on KotakuInAction, the main GamerGate hub on Reddit, like mushrooms after a rainstorm. While some resorted to the mildly racist and homophobic jokes about big black you-know-whats that Milo and his fans so delight in, others wondered aloud if their dear leader had been captured or otherwise harmed by evil SJWs.
And then, suddenly, he was back, announcing on Twitter that, yes, he was still alive. “If I ever do get assassinated by feminists don’t worry I’ll let you know on Twitter,” he added in a second Tweet.
He offered no explanation, and no apology — not for leaving the organizers of his talk at the University of Houson in the lurch, or for the panic he’d caused amongst his followers.
By Saturday, he had returned to Tweeting normally, as if nothing had happened. He made AIDS jokes; he declared that Muslims should be expelled from the UK; he boasted that his videos on YouTube had gotten 5 million views. He let his 200.000 followers — or at least that portion of them that are real — know about the pledge of one Trump fan who promised to get MAGA — short for “Make America Great Again” — tattooed on his anus if his Tweet was retweeted 500 times. (It was.)
And, without saying a word about what happened in Houston, Milo happily plugged the talk he will soon be giving in Washington DC — that is. if he shows up.
You know who did manage to offer an apology for Milo’s no-show? The College Republicans, who had to improvise when it became clear their speaker had gone missing.
In a post on Facebook, the organizers of the event wrote:
Hello all, we, as a board, would like to sincerely apologize for how the event tonight transpired. We’d also like to thank everyone to for coming out, and ultimately staying, even after it was evident Milo was not showing up. During the evening, we tried our hardest to get in contact with Milo, to no avail. We are all disappointed, and, we’d like you to know, the board shares in your disappointment after working for weeks to try and put on a successful event.
Many of you traveled a long distance to come see Milo speak, and we’d like to earnestly thank you and apologize to you at the same time.
They went on to thank several people who’d stepped up and held an impromptu political debate for those who had decided to stay.
Again, we’d like to thank all of you for coming out to the event, and we apologize for Milo not showing up. We truly hope you will see that we tried our hardest to create a fun evening for all, and will come join us again, soon.
The organizers followed this up with a second apologetic post — and an achingly sincere apology video from the main organizer.
This may be the first time in my life I’ve ever been even slightly impressed with the behavior of College Republicans.
So what happened to Milo? He apparently told the College Republicans — who passed it along on Facebook — that he’d “had a health problem, and was unable to make it.”
Somehow that “health problem” didn’t keep Milo from meeting with other fans.
https://twitter.com/AFitzpatrick_/status/721586163341877248
https://twitter.com/jk_bacon/status/721160814493831168
I’m assuming that Milo is alive in these photos and we don’t have some sort of Weekend at Bernie’s thing going on.
If Milo isn’t literally a corpse being propped up in front of the cameras, it seems a bit weird that his “health problem” didn’t get in the way of hitting the bars, but somehow made it impossible for him to type the words “I’m sorry” on Twitter.
But his fans seem to have forgiven him. I can only wonder what sort of epic sh*tstorm would have rained down on, say, Anita Sarkeesian if she’d missed a speaking engagement without explanation or apology.
I’m glad he’s okay, I guess? But god, what a douchebag. I didn’t realize that his douchebaggery extended to the people who actually like him (for some reason).
I can’t imagine Sarkeesian — or anyone with an ounce of professional integrity — disappearing without apologizing when the opportunity arises.
If he gets assassinated he’ll Tweet about it?
Uh, okey-dokey.
Next time just disappear forever, okay Milo?
Is that a bootleg Sufjan Stevens next to him in the first picture? Surfgarms Stooveens
And someone’s going to tattoo Make America Great Again on their asshole? Jesus Christ, are they trying to be Jared Leto?
I wonder how much Yiannopoulos is drinking these days. In a recent puff interview (I forget for which outlet, but it was within the past 6mos) he took the reporter out for rose wine at 10 am, and continued drinking with her throughout the day. It seems obvious that in this instance he blew off a speaking engagement to go out drinking as well.
Milo may not have a “health problem” now, but he might get one if he keeps on drinking so heavily.
This reminds me of the time Rhoosh claimed he was arrested and thrown in a Polish jail as a joke.
Had a roommate some time ago who at some point up and disappeared for a day, sending everyone very worried for her (she had some mental health problems and folks were worried she might harm herself) then returned and didn’t want to talk about it, and everything went back to normal.
So, I dunno, feel a bit uncomfortable making fun of someone for acting similarly, even if this someone is as despicable as Yannopoulos. I have no idea what his situation is, and if he did have a short breakdown or something, well, that happens. And if going to bars instead of speaking in front of many people was a way for him to handle things, well, that happens too.
I dunno. Don’t intend to armchair-analyze, because I know it’s ridiculous to do so, I don’t know the guy. But it still makes me a bit uncomfortable to point and laugh at someone’s problem (and whatever the reason for disappearing, seems safe to assume it was some sort of problem) rather than at their opinions.
College Republicans sez:
and… I’ll leave it just like that.
Actually, that would be kind of funny for someone to live-tweet an assassination attempt against them.
Still trying to figure out why someone with his attitudes would want to be ‘Nero’ on Twitter.
He may have partied too hard the night before and was hung over or crashed hard from the yayo. So his claims of “health problems” would sort of be a fib or “white lie.” I think most of us have been there.
Still not the most professional behavior for somebody who is supposed to be a major journalist but I can’t look down on him.
Going off the grid for a time and then acting like nothing happened is a pretty strong sign of depression, so I dunno if we should be making jokes about this. :/
The two possibilities I see here are:
– Got loaded on drugs, potentially involved in an Eyes Wide Shut situation, and it was so harrowing he will never comment on it
– Mental health crisis, as nobody could reach him whatsoever and he’s been mum on what happened
The former would not be unsurprising considering his lack of care for anyone but himself, and the fact that his rabid pets would defend his reputation against anyone who might try and say he’s kind of a bad person for skipping out on an event without warning.
The latter puts me in the tough place of empathizing with that sometimes inexplicable need to disappear completely because your brain has decided to pick the worst possible time to go through a massive hate campaign against yourself, while also wondering if maybe he’s becoming aware of just exactly what he’s gotten himself into and he’s struggling with maintaining Milo As Seen On Twitter™ in the face of Milo Who Doesn’t Want To Be A Horrible Person Anymore.
Look if we can joke about him lacking the effort to write his own articles, we can certainly joke about his lack of ability to be punctual. If he’s depressed he’ll say it. I’ll keep the assumption he’s a sleazy slimebag coasting on his hypocritical mass of sexist hate.
How sure are we that the Yiannopoulos who was seen drinking in Houston is the same one that was posting on Twitter the next day?
There could be dozens of them out there.
Tip of the hat to “Carter Hall” for introducing the term “cuckroach” to me. Very clever. https://twitter.com/Mt_Seleya/status/721766563511189504
On a related note, anotehr guy who liked calling his opponents cockroaches has finally been brought to justice. Better late than never. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36057575
I knew it was too much to just hope that he’d had an epic crisis of conscience, and could no longer be the shitmonster he became famous from being.
I wonder if anyone will hold him accountable, vis a vis the very timely photos of him boozing it up with randos when he ought to have been harping and screeching against feminism, etc.
Maybe, Milo’s ‘health problem‘, is the sort that could be helped by getting in contact with the AA?
Don’t leave it too late, Milo. Your boyish good looks will be the first thing to go.
Are you kidding? She cancelled her talk at the University of Utah because someone threatened to shoot up the place if she did go through with it and the police weren’t going to do anything, and GG was giving her shit about it.
She kept everyone up-to-date, apologized for cancelling the lecture, and told everyone in explicit detail what was going on.
They’d do anything to shit on her, just because they enjoy the act. They don’t need some sort of special excuse.
The mantra of “It’s only okay when we do it!” lives on.
Milo disappears for a day and skips a speaking engagement? He had a ‘health problem’, so it’s totally fine! No, we don’t care he was actually out drinking! He said he had a health problem!
Anita cancels a speaking engagement because she fears for her life, and the lives of those who would attend? She’s a fucking coward and she should be ashamed of herself for lying about being threatened!
It continues.
Milo could have said to one of his famously numerous interns, “I can’t make it to that thing. Text them.”
He lacks talent, skill, or insight, so he gets attention by spewing hatred.
What a tedious, tedious person.
Sunglasses indoors + Dishevelled suit with the wrong buttons done up + Out drinking at midday = Hangover.
@EJ (The Other One)
Without the check mark, we’ll never be able to tell.
The Australian Journalistic phrase is that he was too “tired and emotional” to attend (i.e. drunk).
I’ve known as few functional drunks who could at least call and make an apology. Even while semi conscious in a gutter.