"milo on maher"

"Real Time" (HBO) 

Last Friday, Bill Maher, a triple threat of the left who frequently rages against Republican ideology and today's degenerative youth, invited a fellow raconteur across the pond to speak on behalf of free speech on his lauded HBO program, "Real Time with Bill Maher." The guest, Milo Yiannopoulos — an old-school "free thinker" and reciprocal institutionalist muckraker, is also famous for waging war against 'Political Correctness,' albeit under the moral authority of "free speech." While Maher invited a dangerous personality to defend the merits of America's first amendment, what Milo offered to us instead was a benediction of its ugly, racist twin... Hate speech.  

Amid the bravado of their masturbatory exchange of ideas, Milo has since been barred from a speaking slot at CPAC, been forced to step down from his post as Senior Editor at Breitbart, and has had his forthcoming book deal sacked by Simon & Schuster. Yiannopoulos, who mostly flew under the radar until those pesky UC Berkeley protests erupted last February, remains somewhat an anomaly for those on the left who try to pin him or his ideas down. He is a tenacious, oftentimes confounding master provocateur who spends his days railing against marginalized communities, is unapologetically transphobic, believes homosexuals make for bad hires because "they never show up on time to work," and was famously booted from Twitter after a vicious campaign to demonize and berate actress Leslie Jones (over her ostensibly "simian" and "uneducated" qualities). In other words, a free thinker with an "edge." 

Yet it was his repugnant and indefensible affirmation of pedophilia that finally did him in, and for a man who dressed like Brüno yet delivers xenophobic sermons like Ann Coulter, it seems oddly satisfying watching his rising star fade away. Days after the announcement Yiannopoulos would be barred from CPAC, another up-and-coming leader of the alt-right, Richard Spencer (the well-groomed nazi made famous for getting punched in the face), was also deemed too taboo for the conservative forum. Not for his radical subjugation of minorities, women, or members of the LGBTQ community, but for his ideologically-driven and overzealous ambitions, which pitted him — either directly or indirectly — at odds with the symposium's more conventional hardline speakers. Something tells me this won't be the last we've heard from either.  

While TV personalities such as Maher falsely claim victory for purging these dangerous extremists from our cultural milieu, it is important to remember that the individuals who truly push back deserve our attention and adulation the most. Comedian Larry Wilmore for instance, who came out in defense of a fellow Black panelist, Malcolm Nance, on "Real Time," simply told Milo to "go f*ck himself." It was deserving coming from a man who spent his formative years being marginalized by carpetbaggers such as Milo, and by ill-advised proxy, even personalities like Maher himself. "As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You're welcome."

No, Bill. Shade is the best disinfectant, and yesterday you brought neither.