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.
Milo seems too cartoonish to be credible, even to MRAs.
And why does he hate gays so much when he is one?
A very confused and sad man indeed.
My assumption is that Milo was sleeping it off after a night out drinking and whatever. But this is speculation on my part.
If I’m wrong, and Milo is indeed dealing with depression, I can only hope it leads him to feel even a small amount of empathy with others dealing with mental illness. Because right now he’s basically the leading figure in a roving harassment mob that not only mocks those dealing with mental illness but actively harasses them as well, in some cases BECAUSE they are dealing with mental illness.
https://twitter.com/nero/status/689239852093681664
Maybe I should be a bigger person here but I find it hard to dredge up much in the way of sympathy for him. He’s feeling well enough to make AIDS jokes on Twitter but he can’t say “sorry for causing concern” or something like that?
It may be hard for him to show weakness because he whole schtick involves mocking people for showing their weaknesses, and attacking them when they seek ways of protecting themselves from assholes like him. But he’s dug his own hole here.
https://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=%22milo+yiannopoulos%22+%22safe+space%22&oq=%22milo+yiannopoulos%22+%22safe+space%22&gs_l=serp.3…1321790.1325222.0.1325464.12.12.0.0.0.0.247.1074.9j1j1.11.0….0…1c.1.64.serp..1.3.397.MUGJ6FDIR2U
As someone who’s been dealing with depression for literally decades, I can certainly understand “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.”
I’ve dealt with that impulse many times and sometimes do have to pull back from life and my responsibilities to protect myself. But I can generally muster up some sort of apology afterwards, even if I don’t want to give a full explanation.
Possible, but probably wishful thinking. And I’m not sure I’d fully believe it unless he started taking active steps not only to apologize to those he’s hurt but also to do what he could to shut down the hate movement he’s been feeding, and feeding off of, for a year and a half, or however long it’s been at this point.
.
With Milo’s overall disinclination to treat human beings like human beings, I’m most inclined to believe he simply blew off the engagement, as opposed to having a genuine health problem.
But for the sake of argument, let’s assume he had an honest-to-goodness problem. Maybe it was a physical illness, and he was too busy puking or being passed out or in the ER or whatever to send a text saying “very sick, can’t make it”. Maybe he had a meltdown and couldn’t bring himself to contact anyone that day. I can have sympathy for either of those situations, and can totally understand why he would not want to explain the details of where he was. I’ll even assume there’s a good explanation for those pictures at the bar.
But if he is well enough now to be making gross jokes on Twitter and plugging his upcoming talk, surely he is well enough to muster some sort of nonchalant “we apologize for the inconvenience”.
I mean, I’ve known people who have chronic illnesses where, unpredictably, they have days where they simply cannot leave the house, and sometimes it strikes at the very last minute. These folks have, without exception, been cognizant of how that affects the people who made plans with them, and they always express regret over having to cancel. Of course, the cancellation is 100% not their fault. They don’t owe anyone an apology for being sick. But because they care about the people who are affected by their absence, they communicate about what’s going on as soon as they’re able to, with whatever level of detail is appropriate (which may be the vaguest, “Something has come up, can we reschedule?”).
I guess I feel like, if my friend with fibromyalgia and depression can call in the middle of a flare-up, “Sorry, I’m not up to doing [fun thing] today”, or my friend with daily migraines can’t look at her phone, but can ask her housemate to pass on word that today’s headache is too intense to allow her out of bed, or my friend with a sleeping disorder can text, “Crap, I overslept,” then Milo can manage to at least have an intern ghostwrite a retroactive “Thanks for your concern; I’m bummed I couldn’t be there,” along with a giant thank you to his hosts for covering for him, and ideally some sort of acknowledgement of how his absence (whether his fault or not) affected other people.
tl;dr – Milo’s health problem may well have been real, but I can’t see any way that the ongoing lack of apology and/or gratitude is anything but douchiness. Which is rather par for the course with him.
[Ed. Ninja’d on a lot of this by David]
^yup
I normally do manage to sympathize even with terrible people. But Milo has made a career or harassing, for example, people who suffer from mental illness. He’s disqualified himself from any form of sympathy ever, in my book.
@jk_bacon
CUCK!
What are the odds that one of the three 4chan kids who were supposed to wear the Milo suit that day simply overslept and they had to cancel the whole thing?
@ Garen
I believe “tired and emotional” was first coined by Private Eye to describe George Brown, the famously “convivial” British foreign secretary in the 1960s. His achievements included getting into a drunken fist fight during a live broadcast interview, literally falling off a plane while on a state visit, and disappearing for five days when he was supposed to be in the Cabinet.The FO was constantly having to come up with diplomatic expressions to explain away his behaviour. It’s actually the title of his biography “Tired and Emotional: the Life of Lord George-Brown.”
He was said to have embarrassed the foreign office while on a trip to South America by asking a person in crimson at a reception to dance and being told “I will not dance with you for three reasons. First, you are drunk. Second, the band are not playing a waltz. This is the Peruvian National Anthem. And third, I will not dance with you because I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima.”
He died of cirrhosis of the liver, so it’s a bit of a grim example – not one to follow.
Couldn’t one of the other 43 Milos fill in for him?
Yeah, not feeling much sympathy here. I can be an arsehole but I’ve never been such a massive arsehole that I’ve not pitched up for something I’m supposed to be at (for example, my JOB) without a reasonable explanation. Depression and hangovers (and I suffer/ed from both) notwithstanding.
Why do the people sending the death threats keep acting as if they are the ones being threatened?
As with the month-long disappearance of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, it’s possible that we’ll never know what happened to Milo.
McPherson is little known today, but in the 1920s to 1940s, she was as well known and as popular as Princess Diana.
During the Great Depression, when government assistance was lacking, her organization helped 1.5 million people get back on their feet.
And I just realized that one of her churches–a Foursquare Gospel Church–is just a few blocks from me.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30148022
@Lea
Seems to be a common theme for all these hate groups, huh?
What, were all of his unpaid interns all too busy to show up and give the speech for him?
Preferably three or four of them in the same overcoat and sunglasses trying to pass themselves off as Milo.
http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1b9q2baX61r1fq7do1_500.gif
He wears his sunglasses at night, he wears his sunglasses at niiiiight!
Obviously, he was kidnapped by SJWs who then forced him to come take pics with them @ bars while pretending to be having fun …. all of it a brilliantly sinister plot to defame and defang their greatest, best-dressed, nemesis.
Afterwards he probably had an action-packed escape filled with amazing martial arts exploits that would inspire envy in Jackie Chan. I’m sure his working on a future Pulitzer prize winning story on it all right now.
P.S. Say “greatest, best-dressed, nemesis” 3 times outloud. It rolls off the tongue. I’ve got to write a song just to feature that line. I CALLED IT FIRST! NO BITING!!!!
He may well be struggling with depression, alcoholism, or both, but neither of those are free passes to be an asshole. He’s shown no regard for anyone other than himself in this situation.
Is it possible that he wanted to contact the Campus Republicans to say he couldn’t make it, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so? Sure, that’s a thing that happens. But if he gave a crap about other people, he would at least apologize to his fans and the organizers afterward. But he hasn’t, which is the move of a selfish prick, and if he’s a selfish prick on one day I’m inclined to believe he was a selfish prick the day before and made no effort to minimize the impact of his absence.
Tl;dr We’re not mocking Milo for any problems he’s actually experiencing, we’re condemning him for being a smug, selfish assbutt.
I hope he is just an asshole and not have big mental problems.
That being said, even if he was, it won’t excuse all the insult he spew out. Regardless of his mental state, it’s not depression or alcoholism or whatever that make him an asshole ; it’s what he believe.
@MargaretPless Alcoholism is a health problem. Perhaps in might of what you’ve cited, he was telling the truth: because of a health problem (uncontrollable drinking habit) he was unable to attend the meeting.
If that’s the case, Milo needs an intervention.
If Anita skipped out on a speaking engagement without a refund then Sargon and The Amazing Atheist ragegasm would be heard in China.
It would keep their douchebro rage peddling business in the green for centuries.
@Lea I was thinking less Corey Hart and more ZZ Top’s Cheap Sunglasses. But I’m glad I’m not the only one who free-associates with music!
As someone with depression/anxiety who has to cancel professional presentations, I gotta say it’s not too hard to send someone a message with “due to unforseen circumstances I won’t be able to attend”. Alternatively, something afterwards. The anxiety spiral over cancelling is there, but life is hard anyway, I’m not going to shoot myself in the professional foot just because something is difficult to do.There are very very VERY few things that make it impossible to shoot out a quick text/email both before and after a well planned appointment.
Having depression (much like any other non-neurotypical states) does not give you a pass to be an asshole.
This is not about the article, but are you planning on covering the social autopsy situation? She is going after zq and aligning with he worst of gg 🙁
If he is able to tweet about his own assassination, I’ll have to start worshipping him. That would be an amazing feat.
He can tweet after an unsuccessful assassination. I would not worship him for it, even tho not being intimidated by attempt on your life is a positive trait to me.
I’m not going to make jokes at his expense, but I do hope that this total jerk move of his costs him some fans. He doesn’t care enough about them to call in sick, so…