Milo Yiannopoulos and Enemy Attestation

For those of you who don't know who Milo Yiannopoulos is, he's the darling of the alt-right for being an outspoken right-winger who also happens to be gay. He is a senior editor and writes for steve Bannon's Breitbart and has never been far away from controversy with regard to misogyny, racism and the other isms presently associated with Breitbert. As recently reported:

Before becoming an editor at Breitbart News, Yiannopoulos made his name as a rightwing internet troll and has become associated with the far-right movement that has attracted racists and white nationalists. He was permanently banned from Twitter in July for his role in the online harassment of the actor Leslie Jones and was also involved in the “Gamergate” movement that disparaged women in the video game industry.

The other day, I came across what is now my favourite quote about Yiannopoulos:

"I think this chap may the first person who identifies as homosexual, not because he's attracted to men, but because he just hates women so much. It's kind of the default option."

And so I posted it on facebook. I as questioned about the notion that I would actually believe he was gay for this reason. This is not the case.

Let me be clear, I am not saying this is actually why Yiannopoulos is gay. I have no idea, and would think this somewhat unlikely. I posted this because it is a tongue in cheek way of looking at Yiannopoulos in terms of his misogyny.

I always find him interesting because there is a weird liberal bias I have that assumes that gay people are liberal (because, one thinks, of iconoclasm and fighting against [right-wing] orthodoxy). This has interesting ramifications in terms of a kind of enemy attestation. In biblical exegesis, there is a notion that enemy attestation is more valuable and reliable than pro-agenda attestation.

Principle of Enemy Attestation: Any source that does not have sympathy for a certain person, message, or cause comes to affirm something about it. When writers or enemies corroborate the given facts or data, it is more likely to be authentic. [source]

So when a gay person makes right-wing claims, the (alt-)right laud them as if they are definitely right and true because, you know, a gay person said them. This is a really common trope with the alt-right and Yiannopoulos.