Former professional troll Milo Yiannopoulos, whose career at Breitbart came to an abrupt end when audio of his seemingly endorsing pedophilia and predatory members of religious clergy were leaked, is mounting a comeback. The former conservative darling, who also lost out on a lucrative book deal during the fray, recently told Vanity Fair he’d raised $12 million from several undisclosed investors for the purpose of starting is own media venture. And yes, the totally selfless star of the alt-right is calling it “Milo Inc.”
Yiannopoulos revealed a “page from the contract with the investors’ names blacked out” to Vanity Fair, but would identify them. Nor would an anonymous source with knowledge of the matter, who said “Milo has the best instincts about these things.” Secrecy notwithstanding, the troll promised his new far-right venture — which would compete directly with the likes of Breitbart, Fox News, and the rest of the former fringe outlets friendly to Donald Trump — would devote itself to “making the lives of journalists, professors, politicians, feminists, Black Lives Matter activists, and other professional victims a living hell.”
He even called Madonna as an inspiration, of sorts:
“The business of Madonna became touring,” said Yiannopoulos in a phone interview, citing the artist’s deal with Live Nation. “I’m doing the same thing, but instead of signing up with Live Nation, I’m building one. I’m building it for libertarian and conservative comedians, writers, stand-up comics, intellectuals, you name it.”
The Miami-based company, which Yiannopoulos claims will hire around 30 staffers to start with, will encounter its first test at the University of California Berkeley campus. When he tried to attend an event there in February, massive protests and bouts of violence between supporters and detractors broke out across campus. (Martin Shkreli even showed up for some reason.) More recently, conservative provocateur Ann Coulter backed out of appearing at her cancelled Berkeley event due to threats of violence.
(Via Vanity Fair)