Milo Yiannopoulos’s deportation creates a moral dilemma
CC BY 3.0 Steven Crowder
To understand the moral issue at the center of today’s post, you must first understand who Milo Yiannopoulos is.
Yiannopoulos is a highly visible Donald Trump supporter and far-right commentator and agitator. That hardly narrows it down; he shares those qualities with hundreds of others.
He wrote for the alt-right outlet Breitbart News from 2014 to 2017. He has defended harassing and doxing women in the Gamergate controversy. He worked for the white nationalist Nick Fuentes and regularly and consistently espoused racist and antisemitic views. He was banned from both Twitter and Facebook for those views. (X under Elon Musk has reinstated him.)
All that tells you is that he’s outspoken in his views, views that offend a whole lot of people.
However, there’s more. Yiannopoulos is openly gay, which is unusual among those on the far right. He called his 2015 speaking tour the “Dangerous Faggot” tour. He has also suggested in a video that homosexual relationships between adult men and some boys as young as 13 are defensible and natural. That crossed a line for some people. His invitation to speak at the conservative CPAC conference was withdrawn. Simon & Schuster cancelled his book contract.
Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported
Yiannopoulos has called for instant deportation of anyone who cannot prove they are an American citizen.
The irony of this position was on display when, last week, he was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and deported to the UK. Yiannopoulos, who is British, had overstayed the time period allowed by his visa and was no longer legally permitted to be a US resident.
Yiannopoulos’ deportation was consistent with current ICE policies, which are increasingly deporting people with no criminal record. Clearly, being a highly visible Trump supporter isn’t going to save you from being expelled from the country. Trump had campaigned on a program of deporting only the worst criminals. But according to a New York Times analysis of deportation data, only 4% of people arrested by ICE now have violent criminal records.
Here’s my question for the non-racist, non-antisemitic members of my audience who have no sympathy for pedophiles.
Do you agree that ICE arrests of tens of thousands of people with no criminal record are evidence of a policy that has gone too far, and that ICE should focus on criminals? (I do.)
Do you agree that Milo Yiannopoulos is a loathsome individual who should be deprived of his platform by any organization that’s not an avowed supporter of hate and intolerance? (I do.)
And if you agree with both of those statements, how do you feel about ICE deporting Yiannopoulos?
Does the end justify the means? Is he so hateful that any action that deprives him of his livelihood and the privilege of living in the U.S. is justified?
Or do you feel that ICE shouldn’t be deporting nonviolent people like Yiannopoulos, regardless of their views?
If you’re in favor of his deportation, do you think there should be a special class of intolerable people that ICE is allowed to deport simply for being awful? If so, who decides who those people are?
I’ll share my view in the comments. I’m interested in yours. (As always, I’ll delete any racist comments or any that personally criticize me or other commenters.)
I am in favor of actions by owners of platforms that deprive racist and antisemitic people like Yiannopoulos of ways to amplify their voices. I think Facebook and Simon & Schuster were justified in cancelling his relationships with them, and I support people who protest his appearance at universities.
However, I am opposed to the actions of ICE, which has gone too far in deporting harmless people for no reason.
So I am against Yiannopoulos’ deportation. He has a right to his horrifying viewpoints. ICE shouldn’t be deporting people just for being assholes.
I am in favor of allowing anyone to say anything on a platform or at an university; let the market vote them down or vote them up while denouncing their views. So, protest, but do not disrupt.
I vaguely remember hearing his name and definitely heard about his deportation from you.
I think folks speaking are both harmless and powerful. So much has changed by folks speaking out about things that bother or empower them. So little actually happens from the “speech,” notwithstanding Holmes’ dictum. I made the assumption that you were saying he was harmless, but you did not. Do you?
I am against what ICE has become and relish what immigrants bring our countries, although we do have the right to limit their visits and journey to become Americans. I am not sure what would be a humane way to address those who abuse the system. And I am positive we have abused the system ourselves for as far back as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. We are in the envious situation of being the place folks want to get to. We owe it to all to be clear how to properly do that and treat folks kindly while our guests (and then citizens).
You are incorrect that he was deported “just for” being an asshole.
The NYT graphic is misleading if one considers the plain-American definition of “crime,” since all illegal immigrants would be understood to have committed a “crime.” There are other potential explanations for the numbers, but they need to explain them.
I’m very against ICE violence, but if 1: he’s not deported for being an asshole, it’s for extending his stay ; 2: if this griefer has such pro-ice views, it’s more than fair that he’s subject to them.
1: although other kind of resolutions would be much fairer, like a process that allows lawful citizens to regulate their situation without resorting to drastic measures immedistely
2: I have no sympathy towards griefers. They don’t just have opposite ideas, they are disruptive, poisoning civil discourse to benefit themselves. Ideally we should defend anyone in unfair situations; pragmatically it’s counter productive to help those who harm what we believe in.
ICE should be abolished. It cannot be reformed. Replace it with nothing.
Using a flawed tool like ICE in any way, even one that otherwise seems good, is wrong. So no, I do not support using ICE in this way.