One of the many strange things about Breitbart’s alleged “tech editor” Milo Yiannopoulos is how much he cares about convincing people he doesn’t care.
The self-described “provocateur” even dressed up as a literal clown for his recent profile in Out Magazine.
You’ve no doubt heard about the Out piece already; it’s been a teensy bit controversial. But what you probably didn’t know is that Salon sent a camera crew to his photoshoot with photographer Jill Greenberg. And that along with the camera crew they sent writer (and friend of We Hunted the Mammoth) Amanda Marcotte.
“Perhaps I got a bit caught up in his self-mythologizing,” she writes in her account of what followed, “which is why I thought he would have some fun answering provocative questions while he was getting his picture taken.”
Turns out Milo did not have much fun with her questions:
I never did get good answers to my questions, though I did learn that Yiannopoulos likes to reduce feminism to “angry lesbians” supposedly tricking naive young women into getting too fat to get boyfriends.
But I did learn one important fact: Milo Yiannopoulos is not playing around. He is utterly sincere about his far right views.
He is sincere enough that he lectured me for about 15 minutes, and got so caught up in the moment that he seemingly forgot that he was half-naked while wearing a wig and make-up. He was sincere enough to get genuinely wound up during this time.
Ultimately, he was having so little fun with her questions that he — perhaps channeling his idol Donald Trump — threw a fit and demanded she leave the premises.
He was so sincere that, when the Salon team shut off the cameras in order to move into another vantage point, he demanded that I leave the room, refused to answer any more questions, and called me a “bitch.”
The best part of all this? You can watch some of these testy exchanges on video over on Salon. There are two different versions of the video posted there; the one at the top has more Milo in it.
Turns out Milo is not so much a sad clown as a mad clown.
Milo Yiannopoulos, aka Poundfoolish the clown.
Did… Did Milo just hint at the possibility that he’s lashing out over his own personal trauma?
Is Out Magazine going to make me feel sympathy for Milo by the time I’m done with this article?
What a nasty, cretinous man. What has to happen in your life to become such a person?
I don’t get why so many people defend him and others like him by saying he doesn’t actually believe these things. He clearly does, but even if he didn’t, how is that any better? To me it’s worse to spout hate if you actually know what you’re saying is wrong and hateful than if it’s just ignorance. The ignorant can learn. Assholes are just assholes.
Erm, no, Milo. Some people recover from bad shit, and some don’t. Some of those who don’t recover become victimizers such as yourself. In a few years, you won’t be young and conventionally good-looking any more, and all you’ll have is your bile and spite to keep you warm at night.
Out Magazine’s puff piece was an absolute disgrace. I’m damned sick and tired of people using “LGBT” to mean “white cis middle/upper class gay men.” Seriously, folks, if affluent white cis gay men are your target audience, OWN IT. Stop appropriating other demographics to legitimize yourself.
Your queer equality will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.
Isn’t it awesome how Milo goes on and on about what women think and feel? It’s like he came across the word ‘mansplain’ and thought, “Yes! That’s what I want to do with my life!”
Now I’ll hunker down to wait for the arrival of the Milo fanboys.
I have a former friend and Republican who thinks that Milo is funny. Seeing all this shit going on, I find Milo about as funny as cancer.
There’s no self reflection, there’s no understanding. It’s just cruel for the sake of being cruel.
I guess it really says something about his fans.
Thus Spake ZaraDan Kasteray:
Considering the extent to which 4chan culture has influenced the alt-right, this really isn’t a surprise at all.
I love this phrase and am going to quote it at every opportunity.
So this guy… Out magazine… He wants reparative therapy to work… Out magazine… He thinks he, and everyone like him, is a degenerate… Out magazine… Y’all can fuck off
And Breitbart is being shitty about this too. Duh… Good job, OUT magazine…
Unfortunately, I can’t even say this is just 4-chan culture. Raging negativity and personal attacks are the default setting for most blog comment sections, gaming chats and forums, and were long before the rise of chan culture. The fetishization of free speech ensured that those repulsed by or sensitive to gratuitous offence were driven out of those spaces long ago.
4-chan and reddit have simply become distilleries for this kind of behaviour. The internet as a whole, “clownish assholism” is the default behaviour that may people have now grown up with and accepted as normal.
The way he says “dyke” and is certain women need heteronormative relationships more than anything else in life while being a gay man in an Out spread …
The mind, she boggles.
Thus Spake Zaraleftwingfox:
Alas, you’re not wrong.
Everybody sing! To this tune here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfuWXRZe9yA
“No one knows what it’s like to be the bad clown,
To be the sad clown,
Behind smeared eyes…”
Sadly, this is all too true. I started using the internet regularly before there was even much of a Web, around 1992-1994. There were no chans then. But there sure as hell were trolls, and they were SEXIST AS FUCK.
And yes, I am an Old. A jaded one.
Milo: Look at me be silly! Get it? I’m a silly lady. See? I’m semi-famous for harrassing women. Isn’t that a funny joke? Conservatives sure know how to have a good time. I’m so conservative. Yet, I’m felating a beer bottle in drag while wrapped in the flag! Aren’t I cheeky?
Amanda: So, what is your criticism of feminism exactly?
Milo: It tells women not to live to please boners. Fatties! Dykes! Yucky to peens! *screeching noises*
Yet, I bet he thinks that interview went well. I don’t think he is capable of seeing it any other way.
Where’s your “le puppet mastery” now Milo?
Master troll sure sure
@ Pocket Nerd
A-F’n-Men.
It disappoints me that mainstream LGBTQ and allied media is largely for (and by) rich, educated, white men in large, liberal urban areas (i.e., LA and NYC).
It infuriates me that these publications pander to and excuse affluent white male prejudices, even at the exclusion and derision of the other stripes of the rainbow they should be supporting.
For all the gains we’ve made as a culture (LGBTQ-wise), as a non-white gay man, I’d say those gains feel minimal, to me, when I see something like this.
Our non-white brothers and (especially) sisters are people. They are fighting for equality, not to be the metaphorical “black friend” to mask your own white-cis-dude exclusivity.
Sorry, Out, but no, being “gay” does not (and should not) excuse, or justify, Milo’s racism, sexism, homophobia, et al.
We don’t want you, anyway, Milo.
Signed,
The women of planet Earth
Meanwhile in reality, here are all these fat chicks walking around with actual, straight boyfriends and hubbies, who love them for who they are, and even (gasp!) find them super attractive! And there are also quite a lot of chubby gay guys. Bears, Milo…know any? I do. And they’re not enamored of you or your fascist “beauty” standard (which you yourself don’t exactly meet, either, since you’re too old to be a proper twink anymore).
What he hasn’t quite twigged to yet is that the far right hates gays. Really, REALLY hates them. They don’t fit into that whole Nazi white-womb breeder sphere. And the gay community doesn’t care for the far right, either, because you’d have to be a total masochist to love those who would literally beat your brains out if they thought they could get away with it. Both groups are gonna turn on him, if they haven’t already. And in the end, when his “moment” is up, he’s gonna have no real friends. At worst, he will end up like Ernst Röhm; at best, on Skid Row.
Sucks to be you, Milo, it truly does. But since you chose to be a “star” (note the quotes, there for a reason) this way, I have precious little sympathy.
Talking about your trauma and owning up to it and dealing with (and not by projecting that anger onto others) is a sign of maturity and strength.
Side note, I’m sure that this is obvious to all rational people, but lesbians come in all shapes and sizes. My best friend is a tall, slender, beautiful blonde with a “feminine” look and she could get a boyfriend easily. Guess what? She’s still a lesbian. Although studies have shown that, on average, lesbians prefer curvier women. Just because a particular group has different attractions and beauty standards doesn’t mean it’s automatically wrong. Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. He’s just the type that is outraged by women who don’t fit (or don’t care about fitting into) white straight male beauty standards.
Ask me how surprised I am that proud gay man Milo Yiannopoulos would use “lesbian” as a perjorative, dismissive term. G’wan, ask.
For Milo to “end up like Ernst Rohm” his fellow-travelers would have to be in a position to carry out the Night of Long Knives. I suppose that he could be shot in the chest by a former ally in isolation, but if those allies are feeling comfortable with shooting as prominent a member of the movement as Milo then they probably feel confident enough in their position to hold a real purge.
Dish it out all day long, but can he take it? Nyet.