Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoulos Once Wrote Satirical Poetry about Jews
Image by Getty
By Thea Glassman December 30, 2016
Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at the right-wing website Breitbart News and the leader of this summer’s vicious trolling crusade against African-American actress Leslie Jones, recently inked a book deal with Simon & Schuster.
The publishing house is giving Yiannopoulos a $250,000 advance for the book, titled “Dangerous,” which is being pitched as a look at free speech by “the outspoken and controversial gay British writer and editor…who describes himself as ‘the most fabulous supervillain on the internet.’”
It should be noted that this isn’t Yiannopoulos’s first foray into the world of literature. Almost a decade ago, Yiannopoulos self-published a book of satirical poetry called “Eskimo Papoose,” which plagiarized Tori Amos, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and included lines about Jews.
Last year, former NFL player Chris Kluwe tracked down a copy of Yiannopoulos’ work, published under the name Milo Andreas Wagner, and live-tweeted his reading journey. (Kluwe is an opponent of Gamergate, a movement supported by Yiannopoulos, that maintained feminists were ruining the culture of gaming.)
Here, Yiannopoulos, who has Jewish ancestry, begins one of his poems with “I am not an anti-Semite.”
Oh wait, no, it all migrated to the next page. Is ink migratory? (This one’s classy, btw) #papoose pic.twitter.com/u44vswYmHx
— Cassandra (@ChrisWarcraft) January 15, 2015
In this one he requests: “don’t Jew me down.”
Huh. This must have been what Twilight read like in the alternate world where the Nazis won. #papoose pic.twitter.com/0Xs4Nb7SoN
— Cassandra (@ChrisWarcraft) January 15, 2015
And here’s a few passages where he muses about sex, suffering and violence.
I think this might have been the author’s “Stuck In Padded Room” phase. #papoose pic.twitter.com/pTmd3eClmE
— Cassandra (@ChrisWarcraft) January 15, 2015
“What if, like, no, hear me out here, we were all… WORDS! Think about it, maaaaaaan. Wooooooords.” #papoose pic.twitter.com/9DMxfCFyAr
— Cassandra (@ChrisWarcraft) January 15, 2015
Somewhere, William Shakespeare’s moldy corpse is literally bursting into flames from rage. #papoose pic.twitter.com/tcNK8iAfaP
— Cassandra (@ChrisWarcraft) January 15, 2015
When contacted by Buzzfeed News about “Eskimo Papoose,” Yiannopoulos insisted that the poems were written completely in jest, and created with the intention of “mock[ing] overwrought lefties.” Problem was, he explained, no one on the left understood that it was a joke.
Yiannopoulos said he doesn’t really care, though.
“You’re going to have to try harder if you want to take down Milo Yiannopoulos,” he wrote.
Image by Buzzfeed
Leftie jokes aside, Yiannopoulos appears to genuinely have a thing for Buffy, the vampire stabbing teen sensation he plagiarized.
The writer had a hand in editing a book called “You’re Just a Mortal; You Couldn’t Understand My Pain: Representations of Psychopathology in Season Five of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected]
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
