Milo in Australia: Yiannopoulous, free speech and violence

The political and sometimes legal response has tended to be the executive action of immaturity. Even Milo is onto this, suggesting that the country, suffering "a deeper malaise in the state" has "a serious problem with free speech."

Yiannopolous promoter Damien Costas puts on a face that barely conceals the glee generated by the promise of violence. It is meant to be affirming: the left populated by blood thirsty loons keen to shut off avenues for discussion on the right. "There have been many death threats targeted at Milo, myself and others in the team."

The politics of Milo is the politics of anger speared with humour (not always of the ha-ha variety), but even more than that it entails the show of a pantomime driven poseur. He draws his detractors in, and mocks them for slipping up. It is school boy debating tempered by occasional evidence marked by a fashion statement.

The most pronounced effort at erasing influence would be to ignore him, allowing the fruit, in time, to fall into ecological oblivion. Much suggests that this will not happen – neither forces of the political spectrum will permit that to happen. Instead, the Milo show saw the need for a police presence at his Melbourne event to the tune of $50,000. The cost, perhaps, of aggressive free speech, whatever the substance.