Conservatives Are Running From Milo Yiannopoulos After Giving Him A Safe Space
There’s always a line that can be crossed and apparently Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoulos has crossed that line with conservatives. Yiannopoulos, a staunch defender of the alt-right, was scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference that would also feature such speakers as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. However, that invitation was rescinded after a controversial video surfaced where the Breitbart editor is shown to have supported pedophilia.
“No, no, no. You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means,” Yiannopoulos says on the tape. “Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13 years old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty.”
He also compared pedophilia as a relationship that could be “coming of age” and that a pedophile could provide love and strength of support where victims’ parents cannot. He also said that he was “grateful for Father Michael…I wouldn’t give nearly such good (redacted) if it wasn’t for him.”
“In the homosexual world, particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men — the sort of ‘coming of age’ relationship — those relationships in which those older men help those young boys discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable, sort of rock, where they can’t speak to their parents,” he said on the tape.
This isn’t the first time that Yiannopoulos has been controversial—but it is the first time that conservatives have decided that enough is enough. At times, Yiannopoulos has attacked Ghostbusters’ star Leslie Jones on Twitter with racist comments and sent hordes of followers after her.
The social media site took action and permanently banned him from Twitter. However, this is where conservatives seem to think that a line was crossed—even though others feel that Yiannopoulos crossed the line many, many times with his basic “alt-right” comments such as calling feminism cancer and calling Jones “illiterate” and compared her to an ape.
But it seems that Yiannopoulos’s comments on pedophilia were what finally had some conservatives shaking their head which caused the CPAC to take action and it seems the damage may not be done yet either.
“Due to the revelation of an offensive video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia, the American Conservative Union has decided to rescind the invitation,” Matt Schlapp, chairman of the group which sponsors CPAC, said in a statement Monday afternoon. Schlapp didn’t end his comments there as he also said the comments were “disturbing.”
Yiannopoulos tried to limit the damage on Facebook before his invitation was rescinded.
“I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim,” he wrote on Facebook. “My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous. But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, ‘advocacy.’”
He also went on to say he felt the videos were “edited deceptively” and that he was “certainly guilty of imprecise language.”
But the damage seems to be more severe as his publisher, Simon & Schuster, has pulled out from publishing his book “Dangerous.” His book had only sold 50,000 copies. There is also some talk that Breitbart may be cutting ties with him, as it could be bad for business. The conservative news publication has already had issues with advertisers due to the alt right’s fondness for it. Both Fox News Business and the New York Times has reported that it’s not just “talk” but that executives are discussing whether or not his apology will save his position there.
Now, conservatives are running for cover after they gave Yiannopoulos this platform and heralded him as a new brand of conservative. Yiannopoulos is a staunch supporter of Trump, going as far as to call him his “daddy.” The conservative movement has always defended Yiannopoulos’s antics as a censorship of free speech by the left. However, it seems that endorsing pedophilia doesn’t qualify as freedom of speech whereas Anti-Semitism does.
“The Milo Test,” wrote Charlie Sykes, a conservative former radio host who has written critically of the Republican Party since the rise of Trump via Politico. “Anti-Semitism, ok. Racism, ok. Alt Right, ok. Advocacy of pedophilia? Is THAT the bridge too far?”
