In the spring of 2016, through the magic of YouTube I discovered a most interesting political “analyst.” This man seemed to be a living paradox, a man suave and well-dressed, speaking eloquently with compelling arguments, at least on the surface. I nearly took a liking to him, swayed by old arguments disguised by flourish. Additionally, there was great intrigue. How could a gay man be both a devout Catholic and a staunch conservative? Eventually, the internet’s most fabulous supervillain proved to be unappealing to me, proving himself ignorant and hateful in an interview with comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan.
Soon after, Milo Yiannopoulos became a far more prominent figure after he was banned permanently from Twitter due to a fiasco with Leslie Jones, in which he compared her to a man. Then when Breitbart became a central focus of the presidential election, Hillary Clinton read out loud headlines of articles written by him, notable examples comparing feminism to cancer and stating that birth control causes unattractiveness. So, how could I possibly defend such a maniac? Well, lately, the left has been in a furor over the announcement that Simon and Schuster imprint Threshold Editions will be publishing Milo’s book, Dangerous, which ostensibly is about free speech from the provocateur. Liberals have been up in arms, demanding the book languish in manuscript hell. While Milo may be a spewer of the lowest of rhetoric, he still deserves a right to free speech, and in my eyes liberals should not be so quick to judge Simon and Schuster. Imagine if Hillary Clinton, who has been published by Simon and Schuster in the past, was denied a deal because she labeled Trump supporters, such as Yiannopoulos, deplorables. The outcry on the left would be deafening. A company such as this will always go out of its way to make money, and that is what they are doing here; the views of Yiannopoulos are only in play as far as they make controversy and attract readers. In fact, liberals seem to be aggravating the situation, as the book has already become a bestseller on Amazon and is sure to attract more buyers now that it is out in the public eye.
So here, the moral for liberals is that if you want to protest something as trivial as a book, go ahead, but know that you are only helping the opposition, not furthering your own cause in the least. None of the people who have been alerted that Yiannopoulos is authoring a book and now will not buy it would have bought it in the first place, but I’m sure there are conservatives who are now aware of its existence and will gladly pony up the money for a book from the same imprint that published such heroes as Dick Cheney and Glenn Beck. In the end, Yiannopoulos’ book will sway very few minds, and those who opposed it will forget about it eventually. However, the entire debacle is an indication of the sorry condition some liberals are in, being outraged over a very trivial thing and taking their minds off of real problems in the country. While I will defend the right of all to protest, I also defend the right to express opinions, and for that reason I stand by Simon and Schuster, and to a lesser extent, Milo Yiannopoulos.