"Julia" is a 16-year-old Canadian high school student who "leans right" on economics and foreign policy, and is generally disgusted with the conservative movement's pivot to reactionaries like Milo Yiannopoulos who trade in "anti-Muslim, anti-feminism, and general bigotry."
When CPAC announced that Yolo Minneapolis would be headlining their event, Julia tracked down an old podcast where she'd been disgusted to hear Yiannopoulos endorsing sexual activity between young boys and adults. She brought the clip to the Reagan Battalion blog, whose proprietors she convinced to feature it. The resulting shitstorm derailed Yiannopoulos's budding career, costing him a $250,000 book-deal, his job with Breitbard News, and his slot at CPAC.
Julia hopes that this will serve as a lesson to the conservative movement, that embracing shock-driven, meanspirited jerky like Yiannopoulos comes at a very high price: these cynical, empathy-free manipulators might be fun to listen to, but their adorable sociopathy also means they'll have plenty of ugly baggage that will get out someday. As she says: "You can't just keep looking for enemies to attack and pointing the finger. Eventually, you have to stand up for something."
The teen's mom couldn't have been more proud of her kid, initially contacting Vox because she said her daughter's story deserves more attention. She told me that the Canadian family is "more libertarian than anything," but they're nonetheless "devastated to see that Orange Julius win." And in particular, they're dismayed by reactionaries taking over the conservative movement and especially the alt-right, a movement that Yiannopoulos had become a leader for through his provocative, extreme work at Breitbart.
Julia and her mom have taken part in some activism before, including at a Women's March last month. But when Yiannopoulos was invited to talk at CPAC, this Canadian teenager saw an opening. She worked to get his speech canceled — and she won.
The Canadian 16-year-old had a concise way of describing Yiannopoulos: "He'd be more accurately described as anti-liberal than he would be conservative."
This is an accurate description of the reactionary movement Yiannopoulos is a part of. It's not necessarily that they support any specific conservative policies or political ideals; they by and large just oppose social liberalism — multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, equality for people of all races, religions, and genders, and so on.
Meet the 16-year-old Canadian girl who took down Milo Yiannopoulos
[German Lopez/Vox]
(via Skepchick)
