Jael the Wife of Heber
In the 5th century BC, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, and its ideas are still in use today. In 21st century America, Milo Yiannopoulos wrote Dangerous, which is essentially The Art of the Troll. If you’re wondering whether you should read this book, the answer is yes, you should. If you’re wondering whether you should wave your middle fingers and scream hysterically in protest when Milo comes to speak at your capital city, then the answer is also yes. Do it. It’ll be good for a laugh.
What is The Art of the Troll? Actually, the existence of the book is in itself a demonstration. But let’s turn to prologue no. 2, which lays it out in detail. Essentially, the art of the troll consists of telling unpopular and reprehensible truths, and allowing the resulting outrage to spread them farther than ever. It makes me think of trying to hold back a spreading pool of acid with a fly swat. Milo exists deliberately outside the range of safe-space-approved speech, and brags that “as long as the facts remain offensive, the age of the troll will never end.”
Of course, Milo’s brand of unauthorised free speech is a nightmare for progressives. You see, they have their own special language, by which your choice of words is more important than the actual ideas you’re expressing. As Milo puts it, “They may not know anything about you, but they’ll know you’re a virtuous person based on your use of the term ‘undocumented American’ rather than ‘illegal alien’.” And if you use the wrong words, woe betide you. You are obviously a hateful person, and not worth listening to. In practice, to communicate with a duck, you’ve got to quack like a duck. The problem with that, however, is that there are many great ideas that can’t easily be expressed in progressive duckspeak.
That’s how the prioritising of phrasing over content leaves them intellectually shackled. They can only communicate with those who use their own vocabulary of virtue, and if you use the wrong words, they’re triggered. It leaves them unable to learn from, say, the great writers of the past, and the majority of people alive today, who don’t conform to the linguistic rules of their playpen. Let alone dangerous faggots like Milo.
So that’s why they won’t get what Milo’s talking about. They won’t understand what Milo’s readers do, that he is not just a pretty face, but rather the vanguard of the resistance against the progressives, cultural Marxists and SJWs who have largely taken over our society. They’ll underestimate him, while he and likeminded people rise up under their very noses. They’ll be unable to account for his popularity without resort to cop-out arguments like “everybody is racist”, and “it’s all self-loathing, they think that because they secretly hate themselves.” They’ll think this because they can’t see the forest for the trees. The one thing they do see is that he doesn’t fit into their paradigm, and that he must therefore be resisted. And in their myopic outrage, they walk right into the trap.
“The ideal troll,” writes Milo, “baits the target into a trap, from which there is no escape without public embarrassment. It is an art, beyond the grasp of mere mortals.”
Here’s an example of this technique in action. The Campaign Against Racism and Fascism has organised a Melbourne protest against Milo, and argue, in a fact sheet available on their event page, that although some might say that they should not protest because Milo wants attention, he “will get attention regardless of whether we protest him. […] Protests against him will provide a much needed counter narrative. Without it, coverage of his event would be provided critically and with no opposition. If we didn’t protest him he’d attack us for being weak and ineffective. We can’t base our strategy on what Milo wants.”
Observe the trap. They are on the horns of a dilemma. They are watching the fire burn, and their hose only pours gasoline. They could do nothing – let the fire burn – and go against their own code of radical action, while also causing a man they hate and detest to laugh at them. (Hey, they care!) Or they can take to the streets in protest, and add fuel to his flames. And the sheer beauty of the situation is that they chose it themselves! They chose to be radicals, and fire-starters. They chose to interact with reality by taking to the streets in protest. It was their one response – to everything! And now that Milo has landed, they have an unwinnable choice. They can remain inactive, or they can fight fire with gasoline.
So, buy the book. Read it, and learn. Be like Milo. There’s even a section at the back to help you with that, entitled How to Be a Dangerous Faggot (Even If You’re Not Gay). And to the socialists who infested my campus for four years, and who are now preparing banners for their rendez-vous with Kryptonite… see you in Melbourne, suckers.
It’s your XYZ.
