When Wingnut Hypocrisy Is On-Brand

I don't think I've posted much about this guy here, and it's been some time since I shared any schadenfreude, so here's a report making the rounds of one of the extremist anti-immigrant wingnuts on the Far Right getting hit with his own cruelty (via Nicole Acevedo with NBC News):

Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described libertarian and professional internet troll who became known for his controversial right-wing political views, is in ICE custody.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News that ICE arrested Yiannopoulos, a United Kingdom national, on Thursday at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana.

You might think a guy well aware of his own brand - making money off of hatred and bashing Muslims, women, anyone not White And Male - would discreetly make sure his own paperwork and legal status would be secure so he wouldn't get caught in the same dragnet he's cheering on, but ignorance about their own hypocrisy is actually part of the wingnut brand so...

The DHS spokesperson said Yiannopoulos legally entered the U.S. on May 14, 2019, through New York City, but then “chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.”

Yiannopoulos was taken into ICE custody Thursday after “failing to show up for his immigration hearing” on July 22, prompting an immigration judge to issue a final order of removal against him, according to the spokesperson. “He will remain in ICE custody pending removal,” the spokesperson added.

Not that showing up for his hearing back in July would have saved him: ICE thugs are happily arresting legal migrants at the hearings anyway.

I can't speak for Milo, but I'm willing to bet he operated on the belief that as a high-profile Far Right Influencer, he was untouchable. Wilhoit's Law - the conservative group-think that "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect" - on full display: Milo thought himself part of the In-Group that the law would protect while attacking Latino and other dark-skinned people who make up the Out-Groups.

He must not have gotten the memo that Stephen Miller - a higher-ranking anti-immigrant hater - wants his quota of 20 million migrants deported, which means ICE and DHS are also rounding up anyone in the Eurotrash ethnicity just so they can claim to the media "oh hey, we're not THAT racist!"

It's likely that someone in trump's administration will intervene at some point, give Yiannopoulos some face-saving act of mercy to let him out and flee to a friendlier European nation that won't bar him from entering. Going through the whole deportation process - the humiliation, the chains, the black site airflights to nations where the migrants don't even belong in order to prevent them from re-adjusting to strange locales - could expose the Far Right's cruelty to their own audiences if Milo gets to a smartphone and reaches his core followers to complain. Update: Never mind all that, the news is already reporting that Yiannopoulos was deported back to the United Kingdom today. Wow. He's really lost his friends in high places.

In the meantime, enjoy the "Leopards Eating People's Faces" moment for what it is.