Apologies for not writing in a while. I want this to at least be a semi-daily blog, especially with how fast things are developing under Trump. But I had some major drama at work and now I’m sick with the flu. So I’ve had to take some time off.
But on the heels of the hit piece on YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, aka Pewdiepie, came the hit piece on Milo Yiannopoulos a couple days ago. The whole thing had the signature of a coordinated effort. By the time I could get my morning coffee going, all the newspapers repeated the same mantra that he’s a pedophile apologist, he was dropped from speaking at CPAC, lost his book deal with Simon and Schuster, and at least was predicted to announce his resignation from Breitbart.
Smear campaigns seem to be all the rage these days, bouyed by a certain salaciousness to the claims that make people not want to touch it. This makes it compelling for people not to research the topic and instead go along with it. After all, the opposition to Trump is at this point based on a pussy grabbing comment. So it’s easy to dismiss this.
But there are two major differences that make Milo’s smear campaign that much worse – and why I mentioned Pewdiepie to begin with. While Pewdiepie is an apolitical Youtuber, Milo has been on the front lines of the political culture war. And the second is that Milo was betrayed by the right as well as the left. There’s a certain, “Et tu, Breitbart?” feel to all of this.
Sargon of Akkad, a youtuber I subscribe to, has a great video explaining the details of Milo’s smear campaign. The major detail to remember out of all that, though, is that Milo basically said the same things other Hollywood celebrities like Elijah Wood or Cory Haim said – that Hollywood has a pedophile ring. That’s all. This is what was twisted into saying he was justifying pedophilia.
And the thing is, I can kind of understand Milo resigning from Breitbart. Breitbart is getting into the big leagues, I’m sure they’re looking to play nice with more established conservative circles like CPAC. Milo’s breitbart.com/milo URL remains, and the fact is he’s gotten much bigger than his editorship role. So it’s a non-issue.
What does bother me is #NeverTrump conservative groups have joined the leftist media in smearing Milo. Evan McMullin and the Reagan Battallion have seemed to be front and center in all this, but again, I’ll let you watch the Sargon video for that. You’ve had a number of conservative bloggers jump on this train and distance themselves from Milo.
To that I say, you ungrateful fucking saps.
Milo could singlehandedly be the reason conservatism rose its way out of irrelevance and has found new popularity on college campuses. None of these policy wonks and talking heads and bloggers would have audience member #1 if it wasn’t for the work Milo has done.
He has marched through the campuses, through the social media platforms, and stood up for basic conservative values that bring everybody together. Values like individual liberty and responsibility. Law and order, and the right to borders and immigration laws. Ending the grievance culture and identity politics. The superiority of American values (not ethnicities, as he’d put it). The sanctity of private property, and its ability to let people create their own wealth and life themselves out of poverty.
For this, you backstabbed him. Verily I say this unto you, you ungrateful, treacherous, slimy lying saps. And to that I will add, obsolete.
Because here’s the other thing, and I have to again chime in with Sargon (and Trump) when they say the mainstream media are the enemy of the people. People like Milo and Pewdiepie have a reach that dwarfs traditional media. Old media can no longer compete with them, especially considering they are no longer trustworthy. So they will continue to drag their own brand into irrelevance by dragging down new media stars by any means necessary.
The question is whether the Republican party wants to share their fate.
The GOP is the party of Lincoln. This is no faint praise. This is the party that was forward looking enough to get us through the Civil War, to get through the chaos of life to bring us into the future.
Again, we are headed into chaotic times. The legal immigration issue and the current left/right divide threatens to start another civil war. If we are to get through this and build a new tomorrow, we must accept that future belongs to new media. It belongs to those who bring us together, be it over political ideas or over entertainment.
With such a blatant smear of Milo, all the old media are doing are further proving their own untrustworthiness and obsolescence in this emerging new order.
