One day after Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from Breitbart, a 1998 video has emerged of Bill Maher...

The recent sad, tragic, and shameful Milo Yiannopoulos situation shows that the right is far better than the left at policing its own

As soon as it was revealed that Milo Yiannopoulos had spoken in defense of adults having sex with underage children, the political right was universal in condemning his statements.

The American Conservative Union canceled his scheduled keynote address at its upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference.

Simon & Schuster canceled its planned publication of Milo’s upcoming book, which had previously shot to #1 at amazon just one day after it was first announced, and had later returned to #1 at amazon after the anti-Milo riots at UC Berkely.

And, perhaps most importantly of all, Yiannopoulos himself ended his employment relationship with Breitbart News.

So, as we can see, the political right did an excellent job of policing its own.

On the other hand, the political left often fails to police its own, and in fact, often does the exact opposite by honoring its own after their abhorrent behavior has been exposed, instead of condemning them.

I will now cite four specific examples of this: Roman Polanski, Hillary Clinton, Linda Sarsour, and Donna Hylton.

I then gave specific details of the horrible things that those four people on the political left had done. After that, I concluded with the following:

So in all four of these cases, instead of condemning the horrible things that these liberals had done, the political left honored them.

So yes, very much indeed, the right is far better than the left at policing its own.

So now, here we are, one day later, and this 1998 video has emerged of Bill Maher defending 35-year-old Mary Kay Letourneau for having sex with a 12-year-old boy:

So now, just one day after I wrote “the right is far better than the left at policing its own,” we have a chance to see if the left will react to Maher’s statements the same way that the right reacted to Yiannopoulos’s statements.

For the record, I have always enjoyed listening to both Bill Maher and Milo Yiannopoulos, and I look forward to listening to what both of them have to say in the future. I wish that everyone supported free speech and intellectual diversity as much as Maher and Yiannopoulos do.

You know.

You make me ashamed to be a human being.

It disgusts me that I have to share this planet with you.

Altogether, you are on of the most ugly, both physically (I have seen your picture) and inside, people I have ever encountered.

You poison every path you walk down.

I suppose I will pray for you.

God, might forgive you - I never will.

This whole situation demonstrates EXACTLY how free speech is supposed to work.

When a person has an idea that they espouse, it is right to expose that idea to the light. People can dissect the idea. They can question the idea. The person who had the idea can answer the questions and defend the idea. In the end, people will decide if the idea has merit or not.

The left has tried to hide and censor 99% of the things that Milo has said in the past. They have tried to keep him off the news. They have tried to prevent him from giving speeches. They don’t try to rebut his arguments because they know they can’t.

The thing he said about kids is disgusting. I don’t know if he really believes what he said or he was just trying to be provocative but it doesn’t really matter. He put the idea out there and the idea has been entirely discredited. He was challenged on what he said and he immediately reputed it.

This is the way free speech is supposed to work. We have now cemented in the public consciousness that sex between a gay adult and a boy is completely unacceptable and advocacy of such a thing is grounds for public shame. Milo has agreed that it is unacceptable, so to me he is off the hook. Anyone who would continue to advocate or accept the legitimacy of such a thing is who we should now go after.

If Bill Maher wishes to defend his statement we can expose him to the same kind of scrutiny. If he says, “Of course I was just joking. That is a terrible thing and I would never seriously advocate that.”... then we should take him at his word.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

One day after Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from Breitbart, a 1998 video has emerged of Bill Maher defending 35-year-old Mary Kay Letourneau for having sex with a 12-year-old boy