When you are a child, the kitchen is a wondrous place. Its where the adults go to play with fire and boiling water and really sharp knives, turning meats and plants and spices into great things to eat. And the aromas of fresh baked bread, chocolate chip cookies, sauces and soups…….
At some point, mom doesn’t shoo you out anymore, she lets you watch. Then she lets you help. You get to measure things, break eggs, mix stuff up, and sometimes lick the spoon. You feel like a grown up. But danger lurks in the kitchen, and children don’t really appreciate it. Mom always said to be careful, the knives are sharp, and whatever you do, DON’T TOUCH THE STOVE!!. But you do touch it, anyway. And you get burned. That’s what children do.
Milo Yiannopoulos has been playing in the kitchen for the past few years, acting all grown up, doing adult things with his cutting repartee and use of spicy subjects, breaking egg after egg of societal norms and generally acceptable behavior. The rakish gay conservative pundit had climbed up on the kitchen chair, and sliced and diced all manner of things without once cutting his fingers. He was so proud and confident, and thought he could do no wrong. He was profoundly mistaken.
Ousted
In a three hour expletive-filled podcast earlier this year, Milo opined that that consensual homosexual encounters between sexually mature young boys and older men were not only acceptable, but could be emotionally and psychologically beneficial to coming-of-age gays. He said that age-of-consent laws were too restrictive on sexual activity, and used his own experience of losing his virginity to an older man when he was 13 years old in support of his position. When those comments came to light in the adult world of the mainstream news, Milo had touched the stove. And he was burned, badly.
From gay internet sensation and conservative celebrity to unemployed ex-Breitbart editor in less time than it takes to slow cook a pot roast.
Indeed, kitchens are dangerous places for the children.
Just 4 days after appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher, Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from his position as a Senior Editor for Breitbart News. However, that embarrassing performance is not the reason for his resignation. Milo was recently featured Joe Rogan’s podcast, where he openly advocated situations of molestation involving himself and older men. He went on to discuss other occurrences in Hollywood in which older celebrities would solicit younger men, often offering them drugs in exchange for sex. I didn’t think that the interview could get much worse, but Milo’s statements trying to differentiate between pedophilia and intercourse with a “sexually mature 13-year-old” were by far the most disturbing. He might have been trying to establish some sort of semantic barrier between the two, but it’s difficult to see why, considering that both acts are morally reprehensible. The Alt-Right sensation is now out of the job, but I have a feeling that he won’t be out of the spotlight for very long.
Who would have thought that their are still some societal taboos in this country that universally raise the hackles of all political persuasions?
Milo can’t backpedal this, or explain it, or joke through it. The only thing sadder than how badly he has ruined his own career is the fact that, by his words, he has put the terms “sicko” and “pervert” back into the discussion of LGBT issues.