Milo Yiannopoulos, a British political commentator, author, provocateur and media personality, politically affiliated with the alt-right, arrived in Sydney on Wednesday, in his words, “ready to offend Australia”.
It seems he already has. On Monday night, protests erupted in Kensington, in Melbourne’s north-west, when the location of his secret show was leaked. Riot police intervened when a clash kicked off between Yiannopoulos’s detractors and his supporters.
There are reasons his critics are so unhappy that the proud right wing “troll” being given a platform to espouse his controversial views.
The 33-year-old, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, is in the country to promote his new book, Dangerous. His speaking tour, titled The Troll Academy, is advertised as jacking "it up to 11" with Yiannopoulos discussing his white supremacist views, his hatred of feminism and the political left, as well as his aversion to 'political correctness'.
Yiannopoulos wants the "whole world to be like an internet comment section". His work has earned him the descriptors: misogynistic, racist, a fascist, xenophobic, ablest, homophobic and transphobic, and that's just the beginning.
Interestingly, the university drop-out is a gay, Jewish man, with a black husband.
"I am the living, breathing refutation of identity politics," he told the Inquirer. "I really like the Bible and guns and free speech. They just don't know how to deal with this..."
Here are the five events that have defined Yiannopoulos' career, and earned him the title of the world's most powerful troll.