We don’t need this hatemonger here

MILO Yiannopoulos’ claims he trolls for a “higher moral purpose” are bunkum, writes Jane Fynes-Clinton. Tedious rudeness and predictable insults do not a satirist make.

Milo Yiannopoulos with Australian senator David Leyonhjelm at Parliament House. (Pic: Mark Graham/AAP)

RIDICULING to expose hypocrisy and trolling those in authority just to raise hell are fine aims for a satirist and public commentator.

But that Milo Yiannopoulos takes no responsibility for — in fact, effectively revels in — the violence, disruption and chaos that accompanies him is criminal.

He should have been booted out of the country earlier this week.

Once a journalist of sorts, he is now purely a pot stirrer.

He hates the Left, claiming to be hard Right, but hate does not have a leaning and much of what he says, including ridiculing blogger Clementine Ford by showing photos of her as a teenager and labelling them “unf---able”, is just plain unfunny and nasty.

No one who has a view he does not share is safe and Yiannopoulos has this week sniped at Channel 10’s Jessica Rowe and Waleed Ali, and indigenous Welcome to Country and art.

Yiannopoulos is in Australia for his “Troll Academy” speaking tour sponsored by Penthouse magazine.

The Gold Coast’s turn is tonight. It was the only show not to sell out well ahead of time.

Those for whom calm and safety are treasured can hope all they like, because no doubt there will be acrimony and conflict between opposing protest groups that follow him like a vapour trail.

Yiannopoulos’ tour was never going to cause anything other than trouble, because that is what he does.

Enemy of the “establishment elites” Milo Yiannopoulos. In Gucci jacket. Speaking to powerbrokers at Parliament House. (Pic: Mark Graham/AAP)

Of course, writing a column about the need to eject him is giving him oxygen. And yes, those who are offended by his vile tirades should just ignore him.

But the bruising, damaging events that occurred around his performances in Melbourne and Sydney this week make that impossible.

He may have lit the match and fanned the flames, but the fire of fury and hate is now raging and that becomes everyone’s problem.

His shows — and they are that: unashamedly choreographed and contrived — bring disparate groups face-to-face.

The Left that Yiannopoulos so despises protests about his propagation of racism, fascism and his agenda of hate. Yiannopoulos called them petulant babies.

Bizarrely, for those who preach the need for tolerance and social justice equity, these groups have turned violent.

The Right spout messages of support for Yiannopoulos, espousing the need to limit migration, speak their minds even if it causes harm, and put the clamps on social welfare.

And they fight. And then they turn on those vested with stopping the fighting: the police. It is a shambolic situation, repeated wherever Yiannopoulos goes.

Yiannopoulos expects it and that is what makes him responsible.

The speaking sessions even have an attention-getting condition: the 10,000 people in Australia who bought tickets don’t know where the event is going to occur until hours before Yiannopoulos struts on stage.

This is for safety’s sake and it is an admission that violence is a given outcome when he speaks in public.

Yiannopoulos’s last speaking spin was the “Dangerous Faggot” tour of US universities, and violence shadowed him there too.

He spouts the need for free speech, but derides and lambastes anyone whose views differ from his.

He has the kind of opinions, inelegantly espoused, that a tense and tetchy Australia does not need right now.

He rails against social equality, has previously likened Islam to AIDS, has said feminism and cancer are comparable and excused sex between men and boys.

Take that, sheep: Milo Yiannopoulos offers up some of his trademark incisive social commentary, striking at the very heart of Australian society with an eviscerating thumbs down to the Sydney Opera House. (Pic: Nathan Richter)

He has been banned from Twitter, lost a book deal and was forced to quit a senior job at a Right-wing news website.

And no doubt he loves every minute of it.

“I troll for a purpose, a higher moral purpose if you like,” Yiannopoulos has previously said.

The use of “moral” was presumably ironic.

Like Senator Pauline Hanson, who was in the front row of his Canberra address, he claims to put words around what other people think, but dare not say.

But consider this: he is dressed in style. He wears sunglasses inside. He manages to drop into interviews that his garish jacket is Gucci. He is a slave to the high fashion of the elite, whom he criticises as being sheep.

He weaponises identity and uses his own personal characteristics to take the wind out of labels before they are applied. He is gay, so how can he be hateful to homosexuals, despite saying he would not employ them because they don’t show up on time, don’t work hard and “get all queeny”?

He has claimed to be both Jewish and Catholic, wears a cross around his neck and says he disapproves of all Muslims except his Muslim, African-American partner, whom he married in October.

He says things that gain him maximum attention and, presumably, money.

He is not funny, not genuine and the violence he orchestrates makes him not welcome here.

Dr Jane Fynes-Clinton is a journalism lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Originally published as We don’t need this hatemonger here