I attended Milo Yiannopolous’s sold-out Perth show.
And what a night it was.
I arrived half an hour before the start time. Not a protester to be seen, either inside or outside the Perth Convention Centre. However, I was confronted with a massive queue that stretched the length of the centre.
When I finally entered the large auditorium it was rapidly filling up with an enthusiastic crowd. What struck me was the demographic of the crowd. I am used to going to meetings to hear conservative speakers, where the average age of the audience is around sixty. Tonight the crowd was predominately young. For once, my grey hair seemed out of place.
Puzzled, I asked the young couple in front of us what attracted them to Milo. They were both adamant that the reason was there was no bullshit from him. They were heartily sick of having their freedom of speech curtailed by political correctness. They were both in senior positions with major corporates where they always had to be on guard about what they thought and what they said.
The meeting was MC’d by prominent journalist and TV personality Andrew Bolt who was given a rousing reception as he came on stage.
When Milo came on stage he was given standing ovation accompanied by sustained loud applause.
That set the tone for the evening. Milo received regular and very enthusiastic applause throughout his presentation.
The crowd was very pro-Trump. The very mention of his name brought huge applause.
On the other hand, the mention of names such as Turnbull or Mark McGowan brought loud boos. And he didn’t miss some of his severest critics. Foul-mouthed left-wing journalist Clementine Ford and acerbic TV presenter Jessica Rowe came in for a lot of stick, much to the delight of the audience.
At the end of an interesting, sometimes profane, but incredibly entertaining presentation, Milo received another standing ovation.
Part of the queue for the Milo event
As I left the convention centre there were no sign of a protester.
Reflecting on the evening. I came to the conclusion that the enthusiastic response to Milo was due to him breaking down the barriers of political correctness. He said things that if repeated in other circumstances would result in nasty name calling by those hearing the comments. It was if Milo had opened the floodgates.
Whatever you say about Milo, he knows how to connect with young people. And I came away happy in the knowledge that there are a lot of young people who have not succumbed to the Marxist indoctrination at school and university.
The Daily Mail, the only media outlet to report on the event, provided the typical “fake news” coverage. Their headline ran:
Milo Yiannopoulos channels Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz as he takes the stage in Perth wearing $4,000 sparkling red designer shoes while angry protesters gather outside
Daily Mail reporters Kirby Spencer and Sam Duncan must have brought their own protesters with them or dressed up some their staff for a photo shoot because I spent at least 15 minutes in the queue at the beginning and mingled for around 20 minutes after the event and there was not a protester to be seen.
How did the reporters know the mythical protesters were “angry?” No names and no comments were reported. Talk about fake news.
And what did Spencer and Duncan do during the two-hour presentation? They didn’t print one word of Milo’s speech. They were obviously more interested in his shoes than what he had to say.
You can read the Daily Mail fake news report here.
