Being the publicity whore that he is, Milo Yiannopoulis held a press conference this afternoon to announce that he has resigned from Breitbart News in order to save them from more fire from conservative outrage.
Reading a prepared statement, Yiannopoulis said, “I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately."
“This decision is mine alone,’’ he added.
Sure it was. Just yesterday, we were hearing reports of threatened employee walkouts from Breitbart if Milo stayed. Apparently pedophilia was their bridge too far. Harassment, misogyny, trolling, and hatred toward literally everyone was no problem. But at least we can agree on pedophilia, eh?
Claire Conner, author of Wrapped in the Flag and contributor here at C&L sent me a comment last night about all of the hoopla around Milo, and how conservatives loved him until they didn't.
It expresses my thoughts perfectly.
For all of my far-right, Conservative Christian, morality-preaching GOP friends: I'm so relieved to discover that there is a line that even you will not cross. I worried about your morality when you embraced our PG'ing president. I wondered about your values when you embraced Putin as a savior of white Christian civilization. I had trouble understanding how you could love Steven Bannon, thrice-divorced Catholic who calls himself a Leninist.
It seemed to me that there was no evil you would not embrace, no awfulness you would not excuse in your need to have ultimate power.
But, I was wrong. While you are still AOK with Trump, Bannon, Putin and the entire GOP agenda, you just can't bring yourself to hug Milo Yiannopoulos.
Until last night, you were fine with his white nationalism, his obnoxious behavior, his obscene descriptions of his sexual appetite. It was fine if he gave the wink and nod to neo-Fascism and called Trump Daddy. All of this was just fine because, after all, he was kicking political correctness to the curb. And, in this era of Trump, ugly language that makes people feel dirty and disgusted, just proves how really anti-PC you are.
Then, shock of shocks, old YouTube videos (which have been available for years) hit a nerve. You finally decided that you just couldn't give a platform at your big CPAC conference to a man who believes that people are just too "hung up on child abuse stuff." This darling of the alt-right -- and until just a few hours ago -- the darling of the American Conservative Union, has a fondness for coming of age relationships between teen boys and older men.
After the press -- that awful mainsteam media you hate more than anything -- reported on Milo's gross comments, you responded. Milo is no longer welcome at CPAC.
Congratulations. For a long time, I thought you'd completely abandoned your self-righteous, holier-than-thou moralilty. I'm sure, given the new awareness you've come to, you'll be reconsidering your complete devotion to Trump, Bannon, and Putin. Right?
If there is any good Milo Yiannopoulis did, it was laying bare the empty, cynical shell that calls itself conservatism.
