Milo Yiannopouloff

Well, I guess that’s no surprise.

The Australian government has cancelled the visa of far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos just a week after it was personally approved by the immigration minister.

Immigration minister David Coleman said on Saturday that comments about Islam made by Yiannopoulos in the wake of the Christchurch massacre were “appalling and foment hatred and division” and he would not be allowed in the country.

It comes a week after Coleman approved Yiannopoulos’ visa against the advice of the home affairs department, which said the commentator may fail the character test to enter Australia.

Coleman said the attack in Christchurch was “an act of pure evil” carried out “on Muslims peacefully practicing their religion.

Just one problem there. Milo Yiannopoulos isn’t far right. Not even close. Indeed, the far right detest him. You only have to listen to him to understand that he is not on the far right – he is a free speech advocate. These days, that seems to be enough to get the label. And, yes he is harshly critical of Islam. Given that it is a totalitarian ideology, anyone who believes in the principle of liberty – even the liberty to practise medieval belief systems – will be critical. I am critical. And, no, I am not far right.

However, the attack in Christchurch is being used exactly as I suspected that it would be used – a stick to beat the opponents of the regressive left and their intersectional politics.

“Australia stands with New Zealand and with Muslim communities the world over in condemning this inhuman act,” he said.

Well, yes, indeed. It was awful. And, no, I’m not aware of anyone saying anything else. But what has that got to do with Milo?

Labor spokesman for citizenship and multiculturalism, Tony Burke, earlier on Saturday called on Coleman to treat far-right extremism as it would other forms of extremism and revoke Yiannopoulos’s visa.

Except that nothing Milo has said could be deemed to be extreme – he merely rejects the intersectional politics of the regressive left. And, worse, he makes them look a bunch of ignorant, fascist buffoons when they do try to debate with him. He is not an extremist, nor is he far right and nothing he has said could in any way be linked to the shootings.

I notice that this article has been dissented and they are all saying pretty much the same as me. Oh, how awful – the Grauniad now has comments that it cannot control.

Update:

If you want to know what Milo said that was so dreadful:

Alt-right hero Milo Yiannopoulos has been banned from entering Australia after describing Islam as a “barbaric” and “alien” religion in a social media post about the Christchurch mosque terror attack. 

You morons. The Alt-Right can’t stand Milo. Anyway, what he said:

“People aren’t radicalised by their own side. They get pushed to the far-right by the left, not by others on the right,” Yiannopoulos wrote in the post.

“Attacks like this happen because the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures. Not when someone dares to point it out.”

That is no worse than saying that Islamic radicals aren’t real Muslims… What’s good for the goose and all that. However, he does have a point here. The regressive left pandering to Islam and giving it a free pass, protecting it from dissenting voices via hate speech laws will have a negative blow-back sooner or later. So he’s merely the messenger.