Milo

John Fugelsang with another good one. I like John so much I probably should subscribe to his Substack. Problem is, there are so many good writers out there, I'm not sure I have that much money. Perhaps authoritarians bring out the best writers in opposition, which would be one of the few "good" things about authoritarians.

You all know Milo Yiannopoulos: far-right provocateur, professional edgelord, MAGA cheerleader, human comment section, and longtime fan of other people getting crushed by the boot of the state.

And, as you’ve probably heard, this week Milo finally discovered what every student of authoritarianism eventually learns:

The boot doesn’t care who cheered when it was kicking somebody else.

The machinery might terrorize and abuse entire groups of people the authoritarian fanboys despise, but that doesn’t mean the machine loves its cheering fanboys. 

It just hasn’t gotten around to them yet.

Here’s one of Milo’s greatest hits:

Oh dear.

He built his career around malice and provocation, attacking feminists, trans people, Muslims, folks who believe that Black lives matter, and even Leslie Jones. 

Yes, really. The Anti-Defamation League cited Yiannopoulos as the instigator of the 2016 Ghostbusters harassment campaign, which included racist comparisons to apes, because of course it did. Twitter banned him in July 2016, and what kind of deranged racist would ever let him back?

And that was before he worked for Kanye West; along with other unpleasant matters we don’t need to mention here. 

But in recent years, Milo had become rabidly enthusiastic about harsh immigration enforcement. Because like many, he’d been taught to resent the undocumented labor force that helps prop up this country’s economy. 

Keep in mind, these bottom-of-the-societal-ladder “illegals” our MAGA friends have been groomed to hate are predominantly Christian; and exploited by white employers, who the MAGA folk haven’t been groomed to resent.

So Milo wanted ICE checkpoints at gas stations, grocery stores, strip malls, government buildings and random street corners. He wanted to see people who couldn’t prove their status on the spot deported, with no due process, on the spot.

But then, in a plot twist no one could have foreseen - except anyone with a vague understanding of how these movements work - Milo discovered the exciting interactive feature all strongman regimes eventually roll out:

“Hey, now try it on yourself!”

And so, verily, the guy who wanted immediate deportation for anyone in the country illegally, was himself found to be in the country illegally.

Apparently Milo had overstayed his visa, missed an immigration hearing, and earned the enmity of Close Presidential Advisor and Capering Racist Loon Laura Loomer; who outed the influencer to ICE. Or so we’ve heard.

Milo was briefly detained, and immediately deported back to the UK. 

This is what modern political scientists call “The Finding Out Part.”

Which Brings Us To The Point.

Milo, like so many before, seems to have believed that old authoritarian bargain: “Just aim the jackboot at someone else, and then the jackboot will always remember that you’re one of the loyal ones.”

But that’s not how it ever really works, is it? You can be the loudest braying, frothing cheerleader for the machinery; you can demand that it humiliate migrants, terrorize communities, tear families apart and make an example of the bad people.

Until the day comes when somebody else decides that the example should be you.

This is the part we miss when folks talk about fascism as though it just means “really mean government.” Fascism isn’t merely a government being cruel to people. It’s a system that requires an ever-expanding list of people who can be deemed expendable, scapegoat-able, and disposable.

I mean, we know the pattern.

First it’s the obvious types, those they can easily smear as “outsiders:” immigrants, refugees, religious minorities, nonwhite people, queer people, political dissidents. 

Then it’s the journalists, then the academics; and then the activists.

And then it tends to be the insufficiently enthusiastic members of your own movement.

Then it’s usually the educated members of your own movement who like to bring up history, science or objective morality.

And then it’s the people on your own side who maybe didn’t clap loudly enough.

And eventually, if you’ve really worked to build another shitty system based on loyalty, finger-pointing and collective punishment, somebody you offended off along the way may decide that you’re no longer sufficiently useful.

Congratulations. You’re the “other” now. 

And the worst part is, when they do come for you, the only people who’ll be standing up for your human dignity and due process rights are those filthy woke liberals.

You don’t make authoritarianism safe by making yourself useful to it.

It’s yet another wake up call that MAGA guys will sleep through, but it’s still true: You don’t get a lifetime exemption because you were an early-bird fan of persecution. There is no Frequent-Fascist Card that’ll save you.

If your whole movement is built around defining who counts as “one of us,” don’t be surprised to one day find yourself crying out “But I’m one of you!” 

That category can change overnight. Today you’re the useful propagandist, laughing as they drag brown people from their cars. And tomorrow, somebody’s reading your name off a list.

The boot doesn’t care how good you used to lick it.

That’s the great scam of authoritarian politics; and you can see it on FOX News almost every night: it convinces ordinary people that cruelty is power - and also acceptable - because, for the moment, someone else is getting hurt.

You can watch the raid, see the arrest, laugh at the weeping families at the deportation, and tell yourself “Good. That’s them. The bad ones who deserve it.”

And then - well, nothing actually gets better, does it? 

Your pay doesn’t go up; your rent doesn’t go down. Your healthcare is still crap, the town hasn’t become magically more prosperous, and none of this feels like dignity.

But hey - somebody you were told to hate is suffering; and corrosive smirking Cro-Magnon oafs like Jesse Watters tell you to call that “progress.”

And then, when the regime still fails to deliver on all that paradise it promised, it soon needs another villain; and another, and another.

The World's Least Fun Civics Course

And not for nothing, but it’s also quite interesting that this caucasian deemed “an illegal” doesn’t get sent to an El Salvador gulag; or thrown into a camp for months; the very-white Milo was swiftly deported back to the UK.

That doesn’t mean the regime is being merciful; it just proves the machine operates differently depending on who’s caught in it. 

Milo was deported back to the country he came from, not sent to a third-party nation. The system he championed has been demonstrably crueler to people with greater melanin.

But this doesn’t make Milo a hero; and the people operating the machine haven’t become ironically funny because they turned it at one of their own; even if it was some insufferable racist twink that you and I don’t like. There really are no good guys in this story.

But the answer isn’t to build a smarter jackboot that only crushes people you don’t like. The answer is to stop building and supporting jackboots.

Because once you’ve created and blessed a system that says “We can do this to them because they’re the wrong kind of people,” you have already created the system for someone else to decide you’re the wrong kind of person.

John Fugelsang on Substack