No low too low
Oh good god – this exists on Twitter – #JeSuisNero. Nero is the loathsome professional misogynist Milo Yiannopoulos. Why are imbeciles saying they are Nero aka Milo Yiannopoulos? Because Twitter removed his verification check, as punishment for being a loathsome professional misogynist and harasser.
He lost his verification check on Twitter, so people are comparing him to Charlie Hebdo.
I want to vomit.
And there’s Christina Hoff Sommers tweeting her support for him.
Couple of months ago, I stumble across a link or reference to this Yiannopoulos guy (probably on this blog). I’d never heard of him, but I follow the link, and I end up on a video of him on some British TV news/talk/interview show. There is a host, and him, and another guest (a woman) and the topic is a feminist (not present, I forget who) who had been vilified, or no-platformed, or something.
The other guest (the woman) gives a reasonable, measured assessment of the topic. When Yiannopoulos responds, he acts like an immature school boy. He has nothing of substance to say. His words are halting and repetitive: constant insinuation but never a definite point. His presentation is 50% snark and his stage presence is abysmal. He is constantly weaving and ducking his head, grimacing and giving out sidelong glances. He won’t make proper eye contact with the host, or the guest, or the audience.
My immediate reaction is, who is this person, why would anyone put him in front of a TV camera, and why does anyone care what he has to say? As I continue watching, I can’t help but notice that he seems kind of swishy. A Google search immediately turns up the fact that he is, in fact, homosexual. And now I’m like, what are you DOING here? You don’t have a dog in this race.
Now, I realize that there is no reason a gay man can’t hate women. Hatred is an equal-opportunity vice. But surely what drives misogyny is the rage of men who can’t get the sex they want from women. What is driving Yiannopoulos?
I read his Wikipedia entry. He comes from money; he has money; he has had success in a variety of business, professional, and personal endeavors. The only thing I can think is he is a raging narcissist who can’t live without a TV audience. But the way he gets that audience seems so…unlikely…
My questions stand
– what is driving Yiannopoulos?
– why does anyone care what he has to say?
That is only one thing that can drive misogyny. It certainly is not the main one. There are many. I would argue that the main driver is the loss of male privilege in a patriarchal culture as women gain ground in terms of equality. What drives men like Milo is their perception of life as a zero sum game. They believe that if the lot of women improves, the lot of men declines…. and they hate women for it. THAT is what drives most misogyny. And with a narcissistic asshole like Milo, it is exponential. It also explains why misogyny is not uncommon in the gay community.