The professional provocateur has resigned as an editor at Breitbart News amid a firestorm over unearthed comments in which he seemed to endorse sex between "younger boys and older men."
Yiannopoulos released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, minutes before he was scheduled to give a press conference in Manhattan.
"It would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues' important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effectively immediately. This decision is mine alone," Yiannopoulos said in a statement.
While Yiannopoulos has made a living off of deliberately offensive statements, his comments on two recently discovered video clips proved too much, even for his friends and colleagues at Breitbart.
Jesus literally just 48 hours ago this guy was considered a conservative rising star.
And now he is essentially radioactive.
Gee, I guess promoting the idea that gays are pedophiles and that their sexual assault could work to help children "discover who they are" simply proved a bridge too far for the conservatives.
Remember it wasn't the antisemitic, anti-women, or racist comments that got Yiannopoulos in hot water.
Those apparently were just fine with the conservative folks, and even helped him to win a slot at CPAC this year.
Joan Walsh of "The Nation" recognizes that those disgusting comments were not only what made Yiannopoulos a star, but it is not the first time that kind of talk has done so:
But the question everyone should be asking is, how did a low-rent scam-artist like Yiannopoulos rise to the top of conservative politics, anyway? Even some conservatives are mystified. Reagan biographer Craig Shirley was aghast. “This is the first time I can recall a spoiled man child whose main purpose is self-promotion being selected as…[a] speaker at CPAC,” Shirley told The Daily Beast’s Matt Lewis.
Shirley’s memory is a little short. CPAC helped mainstream another “spoiled man child whose main purpose is self-promotion” just four years ago when the group invited Trump to speak at its conference. Yiannopoulos’s political trajectory tracks that of the man he calls “Daddy.” His fall shows that the craven opportunism of the modern conservative movement has at least one limit: pedophilia. Of course, both men should have been stopped long ago.
The rise of Yiannopolous is evidence that modern conservatism is mostly driven by fear, backlash, scapegoating, and whiny complaints about “political correctness,” which essentially comes down to white men complaining they can’t insult women and people of color without censure anymore. That’s the heart of Trump’s appeal, too.
Yep, there is a reason that Yiannopoulos calls Donald Trump "Daddy."
They share a similar pig-like DNA.
Trump was able to talk about "grabbing pussies," and walking in on young girls changing their clothes, and still get elected president. And one would think that in an environment like this conservatives should be able to get away with saying just about ANYTHING.
Unfortunately for Yiannopolulos he forgot the old adage, "Never get caught with a dead girl or a live boy." (Yes I know that in this case the idiot was not actually caught with a live boy, but from his words it sounds like there were a lot of time he could have been.)
By the way don't think is the last we will see of this pathetic little troll.
Personally I hope the media stays on this, because I would REALLY like to know who would fund something like this.Yiannopoulos says he has received "preliminary funding" for his new media venture, will be "doubling down" on education + entertainment.— Alex Wagner (@alexwagner) February 21, 2017
