Milo Yiannopoulos is a right-wing political commentator and former senior editor for Breitbart News Network. The University has recently invited Yiannopoulos back for a second show. Though he disagrees with the group on many positions, he has become a posterboy for the “alt-right” movement.
The alt-right movement is known for its ideals of white supremacy and, moreover, its extremism. While Yiannopoulos doesn’t identify with them, he does have his fair share of intolerant sentiments.
According to his shows, Yiannopoulos is everything the left is not: he supports white supremacy, fat-shaming, homophobia and anti-Semitism. Yiannopoulos views, as extreme as they are, are far from widely accepted. In fact, his bold hyperbole cost him his job at Breitbart.
Loyal viewers still tune in to his YouTube account, which boasts 766,000 subscribers. The internet personality continues to shamelessly lecture about his ideals across the web.
Yiannopoulos continues to tour across the globe, regardless of the backlash he faced over controversial comments concerning pedophilia.
The sold-out show on Sept. 22, 2016 proved Yiannopoulos can draw a crowd in. His selling power doesn’t mean he’s a visionary, however.
Opponents and supporters alike seem to take Yiannopoulos’ commentary too seriously. As much as he talks about politics, the man is primarily an entertainer.
Yiannopoulos is a self-proclaimed troll whose strongest weapon is provocative, sensational diatribe. With mottos like “Feminism is cancer” and “Fat-shaming works,” it’s not hard to tell how he fills auditoriums.
Yiannopoulos first came to the University in 2016 as a part of his “Dangerous Faggot” tour. Fans attended the event expecting Yiannopoulos to lecture about some political policy or another. No one was surprised, however, when he walked across the stage dressed in camp drag and delivered a thrilling sermon on the virtues of punishing overweight people.
His usage of costumes speak to the nature of his comedy. Another stop on his tour featured Yiannopoulos dressed as a male escort version of a police officer. In this guise, he spoke about gun violence and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Race politics is no laughing matter to most commentators, yet Yiannopoulos delivered his lecture with his classic condescending coolness.
The “dangerous” man’s personal life also balances the scales a bit. Yiannopoulos is noted for being homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist. However, Yiannopoulos is Jewish himself, openly homosexual and married to a black man.
More than being a spot of ironic humor, Yiannopoulos’ marriage shows another side of the jester. He has said his relationship with his significant other has changed his opinions on gay marriage.
In fact, a quick look at Yiannopoulos’ catalogue of interviews reveals he isn’t a total clown. He often expresses reasonable ideas, or else gives some reasonable justification for his extreme views.
No matter how reasonable he may actually be, a troll is a troll. Any decent sentiment he can amass is instantly sullied by him calling a interviewer a fat, mindless idiot.
Other smaller entities have recently jumped on the troll bandwagon. YouTube channels and Facebook meme pages have observed the absurd “social justice warrior” antics of the left and decided to verbally rip them to shreds the same way Yiannopoulos has been doing.
Small YouTube personalities have the luxury of not being scrutinized. The result is a wide variety of videos ranging from mild “SJW cringe compilations” to specialized hate essays about specific people, with everything in between.
The ridiculous SJW movement isn’t balanced by the right’s extreme backlash. We ended up with a chaotic outpour of radicals both in the news and on social media firing diatribe at anything moves. The culture war Yiannopoulos comments about regularly is becoming a civil war, and no one wins a civil war.
Kyle Richoux is a 20-year-old sociology sophomore from LaPlace, Louisiana.
