Yiannopoulos remains somewhat popular on Gab, but that particular platform continues to attract low numbers of participation. Earlier this month, he and a number of other far-right provocateurs and bigots were summarily removed from Instagram and Facebook, leaving them virtually nowhere to go. Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter in 2016. Then in October, his close dalliances with white nationalists while at Breitbart (including an evening of karaoke with Richard Spencer) were exposed by Buzzfeed. However, after an interview surfaced in February 2017 which he suggested sexual relations between adult men and young boys could be beneficial, he lost his sponsorship by the Mercer family, was dropped by his publisher, and resigned his position at Breitbart. Yiannopoulos’s career has been in precipitous decline since early 2017, following his sudden rise to media stardom as a leading figure in the alt-right, due largely to his influential role during the “Gamergate” controversy, then as an editor at Breitbart News. In a comment, he added: “Is it malevolence, or stupidity? Sometimes it can be hard to tell.” But you did this to yourselves, and you deserve what’s coming.” Truthfully I take no pleasure in the prospect I’d rather beat you in a debate hall than a wrestling ring. On Instagram, he responded to a similar query from Mediaite reporter Amy Russo with a post (since removed) saying: “If journalists keep lying, deceiving and manipulating the public, then they will reap the same hatred they are sowing against Trump and his voters. Since then, he has doubled down on his call for violence against journalists. When Guardian reporter Will Sommer asked Yiannopoulos about his decision to join the UK Independent Party, he responded by email that he “can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight!” In the intervening months, but well before his Instagram ban, he openly encouraged violence against journalists: “I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight,” he responded to a writer for The New York Observer. One of the Milo fans allegedly shot one of the counterprotesters that night, while Milo tried to blame the shooting on the victims. On Inauguration Day 2017, he gave a speech in Seattle that drew a large crowd of alt-righters and counterprotesters outside, where things became extremely violent. Yiannopoulos has had multiple dalliances with the violent wing of the radical right in the past couple of years. But civil war is coming, and, if it does, well-meaning but poorly-informed and relentlessly deplatformed conservatives are going to need a handbook. And maybe I’m the right person to sketch out how that should work. It getting close to the time when, per America’s founding documents, citizens will start forming into well-regulated militias in preparation for the lawful defense of the Constitution. At least, that’s how citizens quickly come to feel. But when someone takes away your freedom, your speech and your ability to protect yourself and your family, there aren’t many options left.
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