Milo Yiannopoulos is a young, gay, British-born former editor of Breitbart News, an alt-right political commentator, and a self-professed pedophile enthusiast.
He was also an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump.
Yiannopoulos became a darling of America’s far-right conservative movement because of his advocacy of nationalism, racism, white-supremacism, neo-Nazism, and conspiracy theories and his diatribes against Islam, feminism, social justice and general decency.
When Yiannopoulos looked at Trump’s politics, he saw something of himself. He called Trump “daddy” and championed his election and his presidency. Trump tweeted his support of Yiannopoulos.
In 2017, Matt Schlapp, chairman of CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Committee) invited Yiannopoulos to speak at its annual convention.
The invitation was rescinded after a 16-year-old Canadian girl posted a video of Yiannopoulos giving an interview that said:
“We get hung up on this child abuse stuff… This is one of the reasons why I hate the left, the one size fits all policing of culture, this arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent.
“I’m grateful for Father Michael [a Catholic priest Milo claims to have had sex with as a teenager]. I wouldn’t give nearly such good head if it wasn’t for him.
“Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody who is 13 years old and sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty, who do not have functioning sex organs yet, who have not gone through puberty.
“In the gay world, some of the most important enriching, and incredibly life-affirming, important, shaping relationships are between younger boys and older men. They can be hugely positive experiences very often for those young boys.”
There are few truly awful things the GOP find truly objectionable in the age of Trump but, unfortunately for Yiannopoulos, pedophilia is still one of them.
Trump is willing to overlook pedophilia for complete loyalty.
But not the rest of the party.
The GOP cut loose Yiannopoulos. His book contract was canceled and so were his highly-paid speeches that left Yiannopoulos, as he put it, unable “to put food on the table.”
Yiannopoulos responded by re-enacting Glenn Closes’ role in the movie Fatal Attraction, screaming, “I am not going to be ignored!”
“I lost everything helping to put Trump in office,” he continued. “My life and career were completely destroyed. Was it worth it? No. I feel utterly betrayed.”
“I am dedicating the rest of my life to the destruction of the Republican Party,” he promised.
It is too early to judge Yiannopoulos’ success in achieving this truly decent objective.
