Disclaimer: I don’t like Milo Yiannopoulos. His brand of in-your-face commentary is counterproductive in my humble opinion. I read his latest article on Daily Caller expecting to hate every word of it. The headline had me angry before I touched the first paragraph:
A Round Of Applause For Kevin Spacey
Happy belated Halloween – the only night of the year 14-year-olds willingly show up to Kevin Spacey’s house. As I write to you, more traumatized young men are spilling their guts to journalists about being fondled or seduced by Spacey. “I would call him a pedophile and a sexual predator,” says a man who has come forward to describe a sexual relationship he had with Spacey when he was just 14 – which ended, he says, with Spacey trying to rape him.
I’m as disgusted as you are by Kevin Spacey’s transparent attempt to cloak himself in gay privilege as a way of distracting us from allegations he tried to fuck a child. This is why identity politics is so poisonous: it seeks to establish separate rules for separate groups based on perceived, or more often simply imaginary, victimhood. Gay people should be held to the same standards as everyone else.
I found myself begrudgingly agreeing with much of what he posted. It’s not acceptable in our politically correct society to agree with portions of a message if you disagree with the messenger, but I have to go against the grain on this one. Milo is (gulp) right to paint the hypocrisy of the left and their mainstream media lackeys as the best angle of attack against identity politics. Case-in-point, this paragraph:
ABC News’s original summary of the allegations against Spacey was that the actor had “come out” in an “emotional tweet.” In other words, Spacey was blithely excused for something he did, because he’s gay and left-wing. I, on the other hand, was viciously attacked for speaking about something that happened to me, because I’m gay and right-wing. Identity politics has always made exceptions for wrong-thinkers.
If I keep stressing that I don’t agree with how Milo handles things, forgive me for trying to be clear. I still believe his handling of his own abuse was harmful to those currently or previously dealing with similar abuse, but I won’t judge him based upon it. I don’t like it, but I’ve never walked a mile in his shoes.
I even disagree with how he frames some of his points in this article, but there were important points made. If Kevin Spacey did some or all of what he’s being accused of, then he deserves full punishment. How the left treated liberal Spacey is very different from how they treated Milo. Identity politics thrives in a society that believes the 11th Commandment is “thou shalt be nice.” On all of these points, Milo seems to agree even if he expressed them in the standard provocative style he loves.
I may never like much of what Milo says or any of the ways he says them, but when he’s right, he’s right. In this article, I agreed with a good chunk of his message. He may be the only man who can tackle this angle of identity politics without being called a hypocrite, so for that I’m glad he wrote it.
