Milo Yiannopoulos - discuss

[Ooh-Rah]

I've tended to pretty much ignore him and his videos, in fact I think that he was recently booted from Twitter. But recently people who I consider to be pretty conservative, but certainly not racist, are sending me his videos on Facebook and posting them on forums.

Am I missing something on this guy?

Full disclosure, I've only watched one of his videos (something to do with feminism) and he kinda-sorta made sense, but surely something that tame could not have gotten him banned from Twitter and almost litterally considered Satan himself by my more liberal friends.

 

[RackMaster]

Use the same logic as the extreme Liberals calling Trump the next Hitler. Nothing makes sense about it.

Milo uses sensationalism to his benefit and doesn't mince words, same idea behind Trumps popularity. Don't agree with everything the guy says but he's not totally wrong.

Here's a good interview done by Vice.
I Tried to Get Milo Yiannopoulos to Convert Me to a Gay Trump Supporter - VICE

 

[Salt USMC]

He's like a gay Glenn Beck: A provocateur posing as someone with legitimate social and political commentary. The right loves him because he needles leftists and counts as their token gay friend. The left hates him because he's just an insult comic. I believe that the twitter ban resulted from a feud that he had with actress Leslie Jones after the new Ghostbusters came out. My understanding is that Milo basically said to his followers "Hey guys, please don't doxx Leslie Jones, for real *wink wink*", and you can imagine precisely what happened.

He also scammed alt-right folks to the tune of about $100k last year. He's kind of a garbage person.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

The right loves him because he needles leftists and counts as their token gay friend.

This made me laugh because I have a friend who will not go see Chris Rock with me this summer. For my buddy, Rock was funny when he used to make fun of other black people, but he does not do those jokes anymore and now he does more of the "white guy" impressions, and is likely going to ROAST Trump, I have to find a new friend to go see the show with me.

 

[Etype]

He's like a gay Glenn Beck: A provocateur posing as someone with legitimate social and political commentary. The right loves him because he needles leftists and counts as their token gay friend. The left hates him because he's just an insult comic. I believe that the twitter ban resulted from a feud that he had with actress Leslie Jones after the new Ghostbusters came out. My understanding is that Milo basically said to his followers "Hey guys, please don't doxx Leslie Jones, for real *wink wink*", and you can imagine precisely what happened.

He also scammed alt-right folks to the tune of about $100k last year. He's kind of a garbage person.

Wowsers! That was a little thick on the personal opinion, don't you think?



To answer the original questions- he's a gay conservative with a self-proclaimed affinity for black men.

He can intelligently debate the staunchest "academics," who usually devolve to their base state of anger rather quickly. This is because he makes legitimate points and their usual retorts don't work against him- racist, sexist, homophobe, etc.

 

[Salt USMC]

Wowsers! That was a little thick on the personal opinion, don't you think?



To answer the original questions- he's a gay conservative with a self-proclaimed affinity for black men.

He can intelligently debate the staunchest "academics," who usually devolve to their base state of anger rather quickly. This is because he makes legitimate points and their usual retorts don't work against him- racist, sexist, homophobe, etc.

I've watched way too many of this guy's videos so I can't really help but give my opinion. While Milo is a pretty skilled debater, at his core he's not interested in discourse. He's a shock jock. He gets appearance fees and YouTube revenue with "LOL feminism!" strawmen. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's more than a little disingenuous to argue that he's somehow interested in a legitimate exchange of ideas. The guy's a comedian.

 

[J.S.]

Milo is pretty popular among my demographic (high school/college age guys) because he's a new, young commentator who isn't afraid of pissing people off. Personally, I'm not a fan because a good amount of his material revolves around name-calling and the like, but at least he admits he's a provocateur.

I think a large part of his appeal is his college tour and the way it exposes the hypocrisy of those colleges and the people in them, who say they want an exchange of ideas unless those ideas offend them. The videos of his speeches getting shut down by violence, or by pulled fire alarms, or by the administrations themselves, are some of his most viewed.

 

[racing_kitty]

Milo got his start as a tech editor for Breitbart. He established his reputation with his coverage of the whole "Gamergate" incident, and it's taken off from there.

 

[amlove21]

Milo found a niche and ran with it. Like all talking heads (Limbaugh, Jon Stewart, Howard Stern, Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity), if you don't find his brand of schtick appealing, you're likely to miss anything of value he has to say. There have been a couple times I thought he made great points about a lot of things (feminism, social justice, etc.). I've enjoyed more than a couple of his videos, but he's grating to watch/listen to in large volumes.

I disagreed with his ouster from Twitter on principle - it was his followers/general populace causing the issue and yea, he was a dick about it but the root cause was him saying the Ghostbusters remake was awful and it was. The people attacking Leslie Jones went way racist and he got banned for it.

Wowsers! That was a little thick on the personal opinion, don't you think?

And?

 

[Etype]

And?

I thought the board was recently railing against opinion stated as fact, I must've been mistaken.

And, you know what I meant.

 

[amlove21]

I thought the board was recently railing against opinion stated as fact, I must've been mistaken.

And, you know what I meant.

Just asking for clarification, and no, I didn't know what you meant.

The op asked for other's opinions about Milo- I didn't understand why you would point out that someone posted their opinion, then post your opinions about Milo.

I now see your comment was motivated from past interactions on the board, and not related to this thread in any way. That's where my confusion was; I am up to speed now. My bad!

 

[Etype]

Just asking for clarification, and no, I didn't know what you meant.

The op asked for other's opinions about Milo- I didn't understand why you would point out that someone posted their opinion, then post your opinions about Milo.

I now see your comment was motivated from past interactions on the board, and not related to this thread in any way. That's where my confusion was; I am up to speed now. My bad!

The request was to help understand, not help understand others opinions.

Remove my assertion of him being a good debater, and my post was devoid of opinion.

 

[Salt USMC]

I think Etype is right here. Perhaps I did editorialize a bit too much, although I feel like it's hard to accurately characterize Milo without being a little flippant. I mean, his whole routine is based on being an agitator.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

As the OP of the thread, I really appreciate seeing both sides of the passion towards him. I would think that when it comes to someone as polarizing as Milo, it would be difficult to answer my question without giving some type of personal editorial (positive or negative). Thanks to all for the input...

 

[amlove21]

As the OP of the thread, I really appreciate seeing both sides of the passion towards him. I would think that when it comes to someone as polarizing as Milo, it would be difficult to answer my question without giving some type of personal editorial (positive or negative). Thanks to all for the input...

Check out his videos- it's like watching Kevin Hart for me (who I don't think is funny at all). I hate his delivery, but his material is funny at times.

If you can get past the delivery with Milo, sometimes his material is pretty good.

 

[nobodythank you]

Love the guy. He is fantastic and hilarious. I don't agree with everything he says, but for the most part I like the cut of his jib. Yes he can be insulting, yes he can be mean, but he backs up everything with factual information. He does not "pose" as someone with legitimate commentary, nor is he a token anything. Saying that amounts to nothing more than calling him an uncle tom just because he sees things differently. He makes his case and it is usually strong. I can understand some don't like him on an emotional level. However, when he discusses a topic he usually comes armed with convincing information.

What I love most about him is that he fights the established norms. Sometimes he can go a bit far, and some of the viewpoints I don't care for. However, if you strip away the emotion behind what he is saying, you can find the cold logic and at least see it, if not agree with it.

 

[Marauder06]

Violence at Berkleey, where he was scheduled to speak tonight. Event cancelled.

 

[Salt USMC]

...nor is he a token anything. Saying that amounts to nothing more than calling him an uncle tom just because he sees things differently.

I hear what you're saying, but I think you misunderstand me.

Accusations of tokenism are not a slight against the individual, but rather the group that has "tokenized" the person (for lack of a better term). Calling someone an "Uncle Tom" is a directed slight against the person themselves, ostensibly for selling out their own people. So in this case, it's not an insult against Milo himself, but rather conservatives at large. To be fair to conservatives, not all of them have been against gays, but the GOP has certainly been opposed to most LGBT issues up until very recently. I think you can agree with that, right? So in essence, if Milo were not gay, he wouldn't be held up as this adroit conservative pundit. Instead he would just be another angry white dude ranting about feminazis on YouTube.

Violence at Berkleey, where he was scheduled to speak tonight. Event cancelled.

Whoa. This is fucked.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Violence at Berkleey, where he was scheduled to speak tonight. Event cancelled.

That is really disappointing. Every time a university gives in to shit like this, it make the thugs feel that much more confidant.

 

[AWP]

My opinion is the guy's an educated troll/ political shock jock. He makes some good points with evidence to support them, but I don't care to wade through the garbage in order to find those points. I'm far more inclined to listen to him when/ if he drops the emotional rhetoric.