Every neo-Nazi's favorite monster, Milo Yiannopoulos, has been having a high-profile year. Once upon a time, his views would have been dismissed as inscrutable fringe racism, but that was before the Republican Party left conservatism in the rearview and instead opted for a policy agenda that most closely resembles that of the crime bosses of Gotham after Heath Ledger’s Joker made a pencil disappear. And this is one of the most dangerous aspects of Trump "normalization." It's not just that he's a terrifying egomaniac with thin skin, an itchy Twitter finger, and now the nuclear codes; it's that his platform has been legitimized in a way that emboldens trolls like Yiannopoulos to say whatever the hell they want without fear of retribution.

Now, Milo would say that he is primarily a free-speech advocate and, as he said of himself on Bill Maher, "a benevolent troll," but this is, of course, bullshit. Free speech is sacred, so when its basic protections are reduced to being a shield for a troll to go on national TV and just lie about the frequency of sex crimes committed by trans people, Yiannopoulos is diminishing how powerful free speech can be. As his former Breitbart colleague Ben Shapiro told Businessweek last year: “He likes to say this is all ironic mischievous trolling... If I can’t tell the difference between your ironic tweet and David Duke’s, that’s your fault. He’s not making fun of racism. It’s clown nose on, clown nose off. It’s basic teenage bullshit by someone who is immature.”

Case in point: Milo is currently scheduled to speak at CPAC, a conference about the future of conservatism. But we'll see if that invitation sticks around, because last night a video was resurfaced showing Yiannopoulos arguing that 14-year-old gay boys should have sex with adult men.

Encouraging pedophilia: Not a good look.

Of course, Milo will probably try to spin this as screeching liberals overreacting to a bad joke, blah blah blah. But hear me out: Maybe, just maybe, hitching your wagon to a lunatic who will say anything to build his star is a bad look. I don't know for sure, because I don't do seances or anything, but I can't imagine some Republicans would be all that thrilled about someone like Milo getting a speaking spot at CPAC to peddle his morally bankrupt views to the future of your party. But that's just me.

Update: CPAC has withdrawn the invitation to Milo to speak.

The Enormous Cost of Trump’s War on Immigrants: