Milo Yiannopoulos seduced conservatives. And now they're paying the price.

[Silver Pines]

Milo Yiannopoulos seduced conservatives. And now they're paying the price.


By Shikha Dalmia
02/21/2017


Milo Yiannopoulos has finally gone too far.

The lightning rod Breitbart News editor was dumped by the Conservative Political Action Conference and Simon & Schuster on Monday, following the surfacing of videos in which Yiannapoulos seemed to condone pedophilia. And it's true, this was awful behavior from Yiannopoulos. But it's hardly the first — and probably not even the 10,000th — awful thing he's said or done.

The University of California, Berkeley, is still smoldering from the violent rampage triggered by the appearance of the hate-mongering Breitbart News editor. And at least until this latest controversy, college Republicans, who organized the Berkeley event, were vowing to invite him back (along with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones) to deliver his aborted address.

That it took these pedophilia comments for conservatives to finally turn on Yiannopoulos speaks volumes about how low their movement has fallen. Yiannopoulos was a hate-peddling provocateur long before this. By inviting him to speak at universities around the country, many college Republicans apparently thought they were taking a brave stance against the forces of political correctness, and scoring one for free speech. In fact, they were discrediting their own movement by allying themselves with a vicious troll — demonstrating that they hate their enemies more than they love their alleged principles.



Read more at:


http://theweek.com/articles/679992/milo-yiannopoulos-seduced-conservatives-now-theyre-paying-price

[Cripplecreek]

He didn't seduce me. I've been warning about him all along.

Tammy Bruce could speak at CPAC and few of us would have any problem with it simply because she doesn't make her sexuality the central issue of all she does,

[Maj. Bill Martin]

I'm not seeing what price is being paid.  He was a temporarily ally making valid points about leftists who silence their opposition, and now he's discredited himself.  The only one who seems to be worse off for that is him.

[Cripplecreek]

demonstrating that they hate their enemies more than they love their alleged principles.

Yup. In their desire to prod at their political enemies they are neglecting their principles. In fact it goes well beyond Milo.

Every time I see some idiot saying "I don't care for Trump but I like watching him put the media in their place" I want to smack them.

[TomSea]

by Ramesh Ponnuru March 17, 2015 7:13 PM @rameshponnuru

Shikha Dalmia has in the past written factually inaccurate criticisms of the “reform conservative” movement and the Lee-Rubio tax plan, and I have pointed out the inaccuracies. She has come back with a nearly-2400-word essay at Reason’s website accusing me of “nitpicking” her and evading the deeply important issues that she and others have raised. (In fact, I have responded to most of the very articles to which she links.)

Dalmia, in her first column on these subjects, had supported her characterization of Senator Mike Lee as a fan of big government by saying that he had sponsored legislation to require employers to offer flextime. This was incorrect. When this was pointed out to her, she changed the text of her column to say that the legislation would require flextime as part of collective-bargaining agreements. This was also incorrect. Dalmia apparently thought that this example was a sufficiently strong illustration of her thesis to include in her article. I thought it was therefore worth pointing out that she was completely wrong about it. (She apparently disagrees, as that second false claim is still posted at The Week.) This may be the sort of correction that Dalmia considers “nitpicking.” I think that before we argue about whether to praise or damn Mike Lee’s tendencies toward big government, we should figure out the extent to which he even has them–by, for example, actually bothering to look at the language of the bill we’re talking about. If some deep philosophical point is built on a factual mistake, then maybe it’s not a point worth debating.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/415563/shikha-dalmia-and-troubling-questions-ramesh-ponnuru

Consider the source.  Whatever can give the never Trumpers, a sense of sanctimony, go for it.

[Silver Pines]

He didn't seduce me. I've been warning about him all along.

Tammy Bruce could speak at CPAC and few of us would have any problem with it simply because she doesn't make her sexuality the central issue of all she does,

@Cripplecreek

I have a conservative friend who just loves him.  I've known her for fifteen years.  She went silent on me a few days ago....haven't heard from her.

[Silver Pines]

I'm not seeing what price is being paid.  He was a temporarily ally making valid points about leftists who silence their opposition, and now he's discredited himself.  The only one who seems to be worse off for that is him.

@Maj. Bill Martin

Isn't it obvious?  Credibility and integrity.

He was never any kind of ally.  He's a poseur and a provocateur....he admitted it was all "performance art."

[Silver Pines]

Consider the source.  Whatever can give the never Trumpers, a sense of sanctimony, go for it.

@TomSea

That's the New Bubble Way, right?  This, therefore nothing she says can ever be right.  She's not an approved source.  It's completely simple-minded thinking.  Critical thought becomes unnecessary.

If you think that recognizing a pederast for what he is amounts to sanctimony, you have problems.

[geronl]

They rally around Milo and defend him, even if he does support pederasty only because he seems to support "Daddy" Trump.

It is truly the only criteria they have.

[EasyAce]

@CatherineofAragon

Yiannapolis didn't just discredit himself. The mere fact of inviting him in the first place discredits CPAC and its parent
the ACU, a point that seems to be missed by some but certainly not by others . . .

CPAC’s Milo Disgrace
Editorial, National Review— February 20, 2017
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445080/cpac-milo-yiannopoulos-invitation-disgraceful-mistake

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), organized by the American Conservative Union, is regularly the
most anticipated event on the conservative calendar. Although it has become increasingly circus-like in recent years, it remains
the year’s foremost gathering of conservative activists, several days of speakers normally include leading officeholders, and it is
considered a testing ground for prospective presidential candidates.

Over the weekend, CPAC invited Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at this year’s event, happening later this week in Maryland. Of late,
Yiannopoulos, a “tech editor” for Breitbart News, has been a regular guest on college campuses and a constant source of irritation
to campus liberals. Recently, the University of California–Berkeley greeted his arrival with riots. Despite the fact that Yiannopoulos
holds a number of noxious opinions, we have defended his right to air them against those who would shout him down or worse.

CPAC is different. The annual event helps to define and broadcast the priorities of grassroots conservatives. Whatever Yiannopoulos’s
politics, they are not conservative in any meaningful sense. Indeed, Yiannopoulos has said so himself. Appearing on HBO’s Bill
Maher Show just last week, Yiannopoulos said that he was not sure he would call himself conservative.

What Yiannopoulos has called himself is a “chronicler of, and occasional fellow traveler with, the alt-right,” that various group of
“reactionaries,” ethno-nationalists, white supremacists, and others, who have set themselves against Reagan-style conservatism
and who have developed a robust online presence over the last year. The latter is in no small part thanks to Yiannopoulos, who
wrote an essay largely praising the alt-right last spring; according to him, the alt-right is generally composed of “dangerously bright”
“intellectuals” and “mischievous” “rebels.” While Yiannopoulos has tried to distance himself from Richard Spencer and other, more
unabashed white nationalists, he has had no qualms making common cause with the hordes of Twitter users who photoshop Jewish
conservative writers into ovens. Yiannopoulos — who has himself hurled anti-Semitic slurs (he recently described a Jewish BuzzFeed
reporter as “a typical example of a sort of thick-as-pig s**t media Jew”), and who helped to popularize the term “cuckservative”
— defends himself against charges of bigotry by reminding everyone that he has Jewish ancestry and is gay. The latter is part of
his excuse for defending pederasty on a podcast in September 2015, then again during an interview in January 2016. Recordings
of those statements were unearthed this weekend, shortly after CPAC’s announcement.

On Monday morning, the ACU cited those recordings as its reason for rescinding Yiannopoulos’s invitation. But that Yiannopoulos
did not have a place at CPAC, or at any forum that describes itself as “conservative,” should have been obvious from the start.
Instead, the ACU put conservatives in a no-win situation. Had they permitted him to speak, it would have been considered a tacit
endorsement of his opinions. Now, having rescinded his invitation, CPAC will be portrayed by Yiannopoulos’s many fans as one more
organ of leftist-style speech-policing. Whatever happens later this week, CPAC has diminished true conservatism’s appeal.

It has become fashionable in conservative circles to cheer every apparently right-leaning gadfly. But “trolling” is not conservatism,
and there is no virtue merely in upsetting campus Democrats. There are many conservatives who do regular battle with left-wing
agitators — but who also are of high character, and advance conservative arguments and defend conservative principles with poise,
wit, and good cheer. If CPAC wants to highlight the challenges for conservatives on campus, there are dozens of respectable options.

The alt-right and its “fellow travelers,” meanwhile, openly detest the “conservatism” that the ACU was founded to defend. CPAC should
have taken them at their word.

[INVAR]

I'm not seeing what price is being paid.  He was a temporarily ally making valid points about leftists who silence their opposition, and now he's discredited himself.  The only one who seems to be worse off for that is him.

I don't think so.

Milo will forever be associated with Trump and Trump will be forever associated with being a "Conservative".

And so too will CPAC and the rest.

[Silver Pines]

@EasyAce

Yiannapolis didn't just discredit himself. The mere fact of inviting him in the first place discredits CPAC and its parent
the ACU, a point that seems to be missed by some but certainly not by others . . .

Very true.  Considering that CPAC is supposed to speak for conservatives, he was a shameful choice.

Good article.

[Cripplecreek]

@EasyAce

Very true.  Considering that CPAC is supposed to speak for conservatives, he was a shameful choice.

Good article.

CPAC has been a target of some decidedly non conservative groups in recent years. A few years ago there was a blow up over atheist groups not being allowed to speak at CPAC. A few years before that George Soros managed to sponsor both sides of a debate on Marijuana policy at CPAC.

[GrouchoTex]

@CatherineofAragon

Yiannapolis didn't just discredit himself. The mere fact of inviting him in the first place discredits CPAC and its parent
the ACU, a point that seems to be missed by some but certainly not by others . . .

Exactly right.
What were they thinking?
What were they hoping to achieve?

[Cripplecreek]

Exactly right.
What were they thinking?
What were they hoping to achieve?

I think they achieved their goal when they got the anti PC conservatives to start screaming "Homophobia" at those of us who warned that Yiannopoulos was trouble.

[INVAR]

If memory serves me correctly, didn't Milo make a statement that one of *their* goals as Liberal Homosexuals, was to infiltrate and take over the GOP?

I know the Liberal Democrats have done a good job of that.

[mirraflake]

If memory serves me correctly, didn't Milo make a statement that one of *their* goals as Liberal Homosexuals, was to infiltrate and take over the GOP?

I know the Liberal Democrats have done a good job of that.

Other than being gay Milo is hardcore conservative, strong 2nd amend supporter and strong Catholic. He has been conservative all his life.

I know plenty of gay conservatives. Not all gays are the same.

@INVAR

[pjohns]

Milo will forever be associated with Trump and Trump will be forever associated with being a "Conservative".

Are you familiar with the fallacy of the undistributed middle? 

[Frank Cannon]

I'm not aware of too many Conservatives or even GOP'ers that were excited about this fruit or even cared what he was up too. Milo is a figment of the Alt-Rights dreams of mainstream respectability that wasn't based in reality.

[Silver Pines]

Other than being gay Milo is hardcore conservative, strong 2nd amend supporter and strong Catholic. He has been conservative all his life.

I know plenty of gay conservatives. Not all gays are the same.

@INVAR

@mirraflake

He's such a strong Catholic that he gives his former priest credit for his own oral sex skills.

When it serves him, he's Jewish.

[mirraflake]

@mirraflake

He's such a strong Catholic that he gives his former priest credit for his own oral sex skills.

When it serves him, he's Jewish.

Watch this: Regarding Catholics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5q4u1nE6tI

Milo has been a strong Catholic for years and never have I heard him say anything bad about Jews or Israel. As a matter of fact he is a huge supporter of Jews and Israel.

He wears two crosses because he said he is a sinner and needs the extra help from God.

@CatherineofAragon

[Wingnut]

Looks like mirraflake has him some man love for Milo.   

[mirraflake]

Looks like mirraflake has him some man love for Milo.   

We are both darn good looking and smart.

@Wingnut

[Frank Cannon]

Looks like mirraflake has him some man love for Milo.   

Impossible. As Mirrorflake said, Milo is a devout Catholics and they are not a big fan of the gays.

[geronl]

@mirraflake

He's such a strong Catholic that he gives his former priest credit for his own oral sex skills.

When it serves him, he's Jewish.

Apparently antisemitic tweets are fine if you can claim to be part Jewish. lol