Milo Needs "Moral Chains"

In opposing the godless and bloody French Revolution, Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism, concluded that,

I should therefore suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of France, until I was informed how it had been combined with government; with public force; with the discipline and obedience of armies;…with morality and religion;…with peace and order; with civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things too; and, without them, liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please: We ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

Like many corrupted by liberalism, the liberty enjoyed by Milo Yiannopoulos has not served him well, because it seems that most of what he “pleases to do” is vile and vulgar. (And, with the loss of his job at Breitbart, his book deal, his CPAC invite, has recently cost him dearly.)

I’ve never been impressed with Yiannopoulos. His penchant for what is vulgar has always turned me off. Like a foul-mouthed musician or comedian, if you have to resort to regular use of cursing and crude sexual references to make your point, I’m just not going to pay attention. In light of that, I’ve never understood the fascination of some conservatives (“so-called” in many cases, I’m afraid) with a swearing, sex-crazed, unrepentant homosexual.

Yes, Yiannopoulos has boldly taken a stand for free-speech and bravely confronted the ignorant, safe-space seeking, “End of Discussion” mob that dominates U.S. campuses. However, he’s done so devoid of “morality and religion” and with few “civil and social manners.” And thus, as Matt Walsh recently pointed out,

[H]e [Yiannopoulos] is not equipped nor qualified to be a spokesman for the conservative cause. He never was. He was always a spokesman for his own cause, his own cult, and even before his foray into pederasty-promoting, his cult never had very much to do with anything resembling conservatism.

The notion of “pederasty-promoting” Walsh refers to comes from statements Yiannopoulos made in an interview with Drunken Peasants Podcast back in January of this year. It’s best to let Yiannopoulos speak for himself here:

This arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys the understanding that many of us have of the complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. People are messy and complex, and in the homosexual world particularly some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and, sort of, a rock.

Yiannopoulos later adds:

In the gay world, some of the most important, enriching, and incredibly life affirming, shaping relationships between younger boys and older men, they can be hugely positive experiences for those young boys.

A longer exchange, highlighted by Guy Benson at Townhall, can be heard here (warning: extremely vulgar). As Benson notes,

Despite the ages he cites in his Facebook post (16 and 17), he mentions the age of 13 at least three times…including a hypothetical example of sex between a 28-year-old adult and a 13-year-old child. “These things do happen, perfectly consensually,” he asserts. Milo can parse and spin until he's blue in the face -- and some of the points he makes are worthy of consideration and even empathy -- but he did mount a public justification of pederasty…

Whatever the age of “consent,” it is not unusual for those in the homosexual lifestyle to speak favorably of “man-boy love.” As Dr. Michael Brown points out,

[I]t is no secret that gay activists have often been at the forefront of pushing for the lowering of the age of consent. (For a 2010 example from England, see here.) It is also no secret that gay literature through the centuries has celebrated the “love” of grown men and boys; and in these cases, there is no doubt that they were minors rather than young men.

Make no mistake about it—as most not corrupted by a liberal worldview well know—this is evil, predatory behavior. Tragically, these attacks help to continue the cycle of pederasty. As Peter LaBarbera noted after the recent case in Minnesota of a homosexual elementary school teacher (who was “married” to another man) who was accused of molesting multiple young boys,

Pederasty—sex between men and boys—has long been a part of male homosexuality. A new study by world renowned psychiatrist Dr. Paul McHugh and Johns Hopkins University scholar Lawrence Mayer finds that homosexuals are “two to three times more likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse.”

We know that many adult homosexuals were sexually abused as children [as was Yiannopoulos], and then they go on to abuse children as adults. Hopefully, these victims will break the chain of sexual abuse and escape the destructive bondage of homosexuality.

In the Minnesota case mentioned above, Life Site News reported,

Forty-year-old Aric Babbitt and 36-year-old Matthew Deyo were under investigation for regularly taking adolescent boys on overnight trips, specifically boys who identified as possibly gay, with parental approval, even though the men were openly homosexual. 

According to court records, Babbitt assured parents that he was “mentoring” their children, and when questioned about inappropriate gifts he gave them, such as underwear and skimpy yoga shorts, Babbitt told the parents that they wouldn't understand because “It's a gay thing.”

Note the similarities between the language of Babbit—who later committed suicide—and that of Yiannopoulos. LaBarbera is right, the homosexual lifestyle—like all sin—is a form of “bondage.” And as Burke further instructed us on liberty,

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetite…Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters [chains].

Or, put another way, as the Apostle Paul reveals, we are slaves to the one we serve. In spite of his reputation as a champion for liberty, Milo Yiannopoulos is in deep bondage. Given his fascination with sex (just about every lengthy exchange he has devolves into a discussion of it), it is clear what is his “passion,” and where he needs his “moral chains.”

Copyright 2017, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com