It’s been a long, slow decline for Milo Yiannopoulos. From the vantage point(视角，观点) of 2026, it’s easy to forget that he was once a big deal(重要人物，大事).
对米洛·扬诺普洛斯来说，这是一个漫长而缓慢的衰落过程。从2026年的视角来看，人们很容易忘记他曾是个大人物。
The British-born far-right provocateur(煽动者，挑衅者), who was arrested by ICE in Louisiana and deported from the US this week, was among the first media figures to ride(利用，借助（浪潮）) the “gamergate(游戏门事件)” controversy and ensuing(随之而来的) rightwing populist(民粹主义的) wave that brought Donald Trump to office in 2016. An editor of the then ascendant(上升的，如日中天的) Breitbart News from 2014 to 2017, Yiannopoulous was an early adopter(采用者) of the media strategy of algorithm-optimized outrage bait(愤怒诱饵), trawling(搜寻，搜罗) the internet and a consulting large network of well-placed sources in search of stories he could use to fan the flames(煽风点火) of online culture war discourses. He would write a story mocking a feminist, or fire off(迅速发出) a tweet saying something racist about Muslims, and the ensuing firestorm(风暴，轩然大波) of controversy would result in online arguments, media coverage, and his own promptly and decisively rising star. Rinse, repeat.(如此循环往复)
这位英国出生的极右翼煽动者，本周在路易斯安那州被美国移民和海关执法局逮捕并被驱逐出境，他是最早借助“游戏门”争议及其后席卷而来的右翼民粹浪潮（这股浪潮在2016年将唐纳德·特朗普推上台）的媒体人物之一。扬诺普洛斯在2014年至2017年间担任当时如日中天的布赖特巴特新闻网的编辑，他早早采用了算法优化的愤怒诱饵这一媒体策略，在互联网上搜寻，并咨询一个由消息灵通人士组成的大型网络，寻找可以用来煽动网络文化战争言论的故事。他会写一篇嘲讽女权主义者的报道，或发一条关于穆斯林的种族主义推文，随之而来的争议风暴会引发网络论战、媒体报道，以及他自己迅速而坚定上升的声望。如此循环往复。
Back then, at the start of the Trump era, Yiannopoulous was something of a(可以说是，有几分) novelty(新奇事物). Rightwing provocation peddler(贩卖者，兜售者)s had not previously come in his millennial, digitally savvy(精明的，懂行的) mold(模式，类型); few others had adopted a fey(柔媚的，娘娘腔的), gregarious(爱交际的，合群的) kind of gay male humor for the increasingly theatrical right. But soon, Yiannopoulous was overrun(淹没，泛滥) with competitors. The rightwing influencer field became crowded, then saturated(饱和的). He has spent the past few years at the fringe of the fringe(边缘中的边缘), working for and hobnobbing(交往，亲近) with a hodgepodge(大杂烩) of odious(可憎的) figures who aim to critique Donald Trump from the right, such as the former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene(玛乔丽·泰勒·格林), the white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes(尼克·富恩特斯), and the antisemitic rapper who now goes by Ye(坎耶·韦斯特). In a particularly pathetic(可悲的，可怜的) bid for relevance(博取关注), he once declared himself “ex-gay” and set about promoting conversion therapy(转化疗法).
那时，在特朗普时代之初，扬诺普洛斯还算是个新鲜事物。右翼挑衅贩卖者此前从未以他这种千禧一代、精通数字技术的模式出现；很少有人采用这种柔媚、爱交际的男同性恋幽默来迎合日益戏剧化的右翼。但很快，扬诺普洛斯就被竞争者淹没了。右翼网红领域变得拥挤，然后饱和。过去几年，他一直处于边缘中的边缘，为一批混杂的、旨在从右翼批评特朗普的可憎人物工作并与之交往，例如前众议员玛乔丽·泰勒·格林、白人民族主义主播尼克·富恩特斯，以及现在自称“耶”的反犹太说唱歌手。在一次特别可悲的博取关注的努力中，他曾宣称自己是“前同性恋”，并开始推广转化疗法。