FROM GLENN’S INBOX:
Having listened to Milo’s podcast and the deceptive editing on the video, as well as comparing his statements to what was said “on the air” as it were, I’m more than a little disappointed that Stephen Green fell for a clickbait headline saying “Milo advocates for sex between men and boys.” In my opinion this was not true but if the goal is to remove Milo’s pro-Trump rhetoric from CPAC than it makes sense to use whatever dirty tactics are at hand. (I especially liked the touch where the headline was left standing but Milo’s rebuttal was not quoted, especially the relevant bits where he lists the pedos he’s personally busted and said that the legal age of consent is in the right place.)
I don’t know if anyone else was planning to partake in this but if anyone does I’d be even more disappointed if no one weighed the value of Milo’s words on their own merit. Smear campaigns shouldn’t have a place at Instapundit or any other blog.
Per longstanding Instapundit tradition, the link in a post is the headline as written on the linked site. Those words are Paula Bolyard’s, not mine.
On an issue like this one, sometimes the best thing a blogger can do it provide context. So I gave you three links: First, to the hysteria. Second, to the transcript. Third, to Milo’s defense of himself.
Milo’s money quote, which was edited out of the video, is this:
The law is probably about right, that’s probably roughly the right age. I think it’s probably about okay, but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them, people who are sexually active younger. I think it particularly happens in the gay world by the way. In many cases actually those relationships with older men…This is one reason I hate the left. This stupid one size fits all policing of culture. (People speak over each other). This sort of arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys you know understanding that many of us have. The complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. You know, people are messy and complex. In the homosexual world particularly. Some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable and sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents. Some of those relationships are the most -”
And this was edited out as well:
“You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13-years-old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty. Pedophilia is attraction to people who don’t have functioning sex organs yet. Who have not gone through puberty… That’s not what we are talking about. You don’t understand what pedophilia is if you are saying I’m defending it because I’m certainly not.”
“It’s complicated” is usually the correct answer about questions concerning sex. But Milo’s actual position on pedophilia — he’s outed three pederasts in his reporting — doesn’t seem complicated at all.