I hugely enjoyed this bravura exercise in self-promotion by Milo Yiannopoulos.
Sample quote:
Sure, I work harder than everyone else, sleep less than everyone else (four hours, on average), I’m funnier, more charming, smarter, better looking and more modest than everyone else. But that’s not the whole story.
My technique isn’t some great contact book, or a crack team of cyber commandos, or some big secret social engineering secret. Nor is it even the fact that I’ve made myself social justice-proof by letting my flamboyant personality loose in public and never shutting up about black boyfriends. (They can’t get me on racism, homophobia or misogyny, so half the time they don’t even bother showing up to debate me.)
My secret is just this: I don’t exclude people. …
And much else in a similar vein. Or maybe that should be vain.
As I say, I greatly enjoyed this fireword display. More than any other recent piece of writing, this one reminded me of the most persuasively entertaining stuff that the hippy-lefties were saying and doing in the 1960s, in an earlier age of alternative media. Like Yiannopoulos, they only grew stronger with all the outraged attacks on them by third-rate establishmentarian bores. The hippy-lefties won. Yiannopoulos, as he says, is also now winning. Given that he calls himself a cultural libertarian, that’s all part of what I like about him.
But what do others think? I doubt everyone here likes this man’s way with words as much as I do. Maybe I like him because I have only recently started noticing him, and maybe after a while I’ll get bored of him. Perhaps so, but as of now, I want to know more. And you learn a lot about something, or someone, by watching people argue about it, or him. All comments – pro-, anti- or anything else- – will be gratefully read, by me at least.
Q. How many comedians would it take to change a light-bulb?
A. None- we have too much fun watching other people try!
Self-referential comedy? how radical is that?
Didn’t know the guy existed but had fun skimming over the piece you linked. Thanks. I expect he’ll burn eventually (noone can’t play for awesome 100% of the time) but he is correct in saying there is a huge gap to fill. May the likes of him have it.
This is one of my increasingly frequent “Who are the Beatles?” moment.
I have been watching Milo for the last year and I must say I find him vastly entertaining. He reminds me of a gay slimline version of Paul Staines in many ways 😀
The thing about Milo is that beneath the queeny preening, he does hit the nail on the head. He was central to Gamergate, which for the younger generation is a key libertarian issue, and prior to that the Kernel exposed some interesting stuff about tech land.
Oh, and he is funny. Unlike any of his opponents.
I’m a big fan. He shatters stereotypes and leaves people who peddle in tribal idiocy utterly speechless.
A refreshing antidote to an increasingly totalitarian culture.
I left a comment on this post of his yesterday pointing out that his claim to have invented ‘cultural libertarianism’ was a wee bit over the top.
Peter Briffa wrote:
>This is one of my increasingly frequent “Who are the Beatles?” moment.
Ghost of the past speaks! Did they let you out of the mausoleum for the day, Pete?
I’m liking him more and more. Having seen Mark Steyn live and unscripted several times, Milo’s TV performances put me very much in mind of a younger, more-fabulous Mark Steyn.
I can’t believe I just wrote that.
His ability to reduce his opponents in debate to whining, interrupting, catcalling babies is particularly powerful. Note how they just fall over themselves to try and shut him up by interrupting, speaking over, or just dismissing him – repeatedly and impressively proving his point that SJWs are exclusionary elitists who can’t or won’t deal with open debate. Breitbart (MHRIP) had this too. And of course his mastery of facts and statistics makes him Kryptonite to the SJW crowd, who are all about feelings and opinions. ‘Tribal Idiocy’ – thank you, Chip, the perfect term.
May I suggest to our ever-gracious and welcoming hosts that they invite the fragrant Milo to make this another of his many ‘forts’ on the Interwebtubes. I think an occasional contribution from him would be a wonderful leaven to what can sometimes be some heavy libertarian going.
JMHO.
llater,
llamas
May I suggest to our ever-gracious and welcoming hosts that they invite the fragrant Milo to make this another of his many ‘forts’ on the Interwebtubes. I think an occasional contribution from him would be a wonderful leaven to what can sometimes be some heavy libertarian going.
Yes, please. And can we also add the utterly brilliant Brendan O’Neill to the invitation list?
I like him. The image of SJWs shaking with anger in front of their keyboards brings a wonderful feeling of schadenfreude.
That’s the most entertaining Yannopoulos piece i have read so far. A few reflections:
* At first i did not pay much attention to him, probably because he seemed to say mostly what to me was obvious; see for instance the 3rd video at the link, where he discusses sex differences.
* If he works hard enough to become a champion for our ideas, however, all credit to him! Most important, each of us might one day need his help in making us a cause célèbre, so let’s be sure to keep him a friend.
* One special talent that i noticed in his videos, is talking very fast. I could not possibly talk that fast, not if i also have to talk to the point, and preserve “mastery of facts and statistics” as llamas put it.
I just discovered Milo a few months ago. I suspect that my wife wonders why I’m so fond of this so-flamboyant gentleman. I think that his appeal is much like that of Donald Trump (what a strange thing to write) – he calls them as he sees them and won’t be polite.
Mr. Yiannopoulos has been on the front lines of the culture wars for about a year now. You can find his articles on SJWs, GamerGate, etc. over at Breitbart.
The thing that makes Mr. Yiannopoulos so outrageous is that he comes from that messy, disorganized maw of crazy and unexpected we call the “Real World.” It’s a place where people make money, fall in love, have odd little fetishes, and just generally behave in odd little ways that refuse to conform to algorithms and prescriptions of think-tanks and arm-chair culture-war generals. That allows him to be both outrageous and the voice of sanity simultaneously.
Nice work if you can get it.
Brian: your “outrageous and the voice of sanity” nails Milo’s appeal for me.
He annoys people who need to be annoyed, and he can write better than me. What’s not to like?
I think the sadly late and very great Breitbart would be glad to see Milo’s posts on a site that bears his name – and I think that’s high praise for anyone. There’s _so_ much work to do to fight the insanity – so it’s lucky there are those who work hard. I don’t grudge Milo a self-pat on the back; may he be inspired to go on earning it. Some of those who do the best work can do so much only because they’re able to enjoy it. Perhaps the truly saintly would feel for the distress and humiliation of an SWJ even as they administered the necessary deadly rebuke, but as for me – well, I’m certainly not going to cast the first stone.
(Brian, I hope that’s the kind of ‘what do others think?’ info you were interested in that made you ask the question.)
BTW I’ve been reading Breitbart London for months, and owe the site much info I would not have got from the beeb. An example: I think it was on that site I first learned of Milliband’s “I’ll make islamophobia a serious crime” speech during the election campaign. Over the next two weeks, I went more than once to the BBC website to learn more. I searched for ‘Milliband’ and ‘Islamophobia’, on the beeb website and only _ever_ got hits in their ‘elsewhere on the web’ section (hits to the online versions of newspapers who mentioned it – I would also have learned of the speech from newspapers of course).
Glenn Reynolds, editor of instapundit and University of Tennessee law professor has always said that the best example of libertarianism in the United States is two homosexual men living together, being huge fans of the 2nd amendment and armed with AR-15’s and AK 47’s.
That gets both the left and right equally upset and sounds about right.
Never heard of him 😀
Actually he is our blogfather. I founded Samizdata when Dale Amon, who is a personal chum of Glenn, pointed me at the early Instapundit.
Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S., so please allow me to wander off OT in order to wish that everyone here has a wonderful day full of all the marvelous things we can all be thankful for, regardless of where you are.
We are living in an extraordinary and tumultuous time, so it is fitting, and valuable for one’s sanity, to take a moment to acknowledge the various good things in our lives.
One of those is a little website where the dignity and autonomy of each individual is respected and valued. It is a sunny meadow of flowers in a stormy, muddy world, and I am very thankful that it exists.
I’ve been a fan of Milo for some time; one of the pickups from his coverage of Gamergate, but one of the unnerving things about him is that he reminds me of a sort of mashup of a Real Doll (TM), William F. Buckley and Max Headroom. NTTAWWTOC.
Maybe it’s the hair, I don’t know, but has anyone ever met the guy – in the flesh – so to speak?
I wonder how much peace and love we would have if causes of grumpy feelings were removed? Turkey, for instance. If you changed the name of the bird to something else, would Turks start loving Americans again? All this talk of eating turkey must be extremily disagreeable to Turkey!
Thank you, Very. I too wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, and hope that each of us can find something or other in our lives for which to be thankful. Perhaps our non-American friends can still tuck into a nice roasted something-or-other to mark the day.
I am happy to include Samizdata in my collection of good things, and also the online pals and the other astute commenters and posters whom I’ve met here.
And thanks to Perry for dreaming it up and making it a reality (and for not ruining it in the overhaul awhile back. 🙂 )
I’d never heard of him before, but having watched the second video in the link and seeing him skewer a gaggle of frumpy feminists in front of a live audience leaving them open-mouthed with indignation and him applauded by the crowd – I like him!
@Bod: I haven’t actually met him (in the sense of f2f conversation) but I was at a Ukip meeting at which he was interviewed on the podium. He came across as (despite his evident considerable intelligence) really rather sweet and not at all ferocious.
Thanks VR. And Julie, I will raise a hamburger for that!
Yes, happy Thanksgiving all.
The thing about Milo is he’s so obviously having such a lot of fun that it rubs off on the reader or viewer, and makes his opponents look like crusty old establishment bores.
I also came across him a few months ago (on the Breitbart site, IIRC), and found the encounter enjoyable. For me it’s too early to tell whether he is truly one of the Good Guys, but he has actual personality and temperament, a way with words, and opinions that I don’t find objectionable so far. I’ll happily take all of that, at least until the jury is back with more. Which I get the feeling it will 🙂
Milo is a sociopath. As much as i often agree with him, on a personal level he is nasty. (I have known him for nine years and managed to avoid his damage; several friends have not been as fortunate.) He does not even deny stiffing his employees for wages, and was also fired from the Telegraph when his scamming ways were uncovered. He is not worthy of Samizdata.
I’ve enjoyed his stuff hugely for quite some time. He’s sharp, he’s quick, he’s articulate, and he can back up his rantings with actual knowledge, all while being entertaining as heck.
Sometimes I wonder, though, if I don’t enjoy him so much simply out of some pathetic gratitude that he’s a gay man who acknowledges that I, as a conservative, don’t necessarily have to despise or fear or pity him because of his orientation.
Bear in mind that Milo Yiannopoulos also describes libertarians as “children” who are obsessed with two things — pot and hacking — and your support for him may be a little tempered.
Personally, I find him as funny as hell, and the reason I like him is because he drives the “right” kind of people (i.e. the Left: SJWs, liberals etc) into spluttering rage. And even better: all his arguments are driven by those horrible, inconvenient facts that the Left can only counter by falsification or invention of counter-facts. It is, as they say, to laugh.
Yes, I noticed that, and I think that he was wide of the mark. He completely ignores obsession with space colonies.
Why do we always have to be inclusive?