Leslie Jones, forever our hero, is already shutting down trolls in 2017
There are people who are afraid to speak truth to power and then there’s IRL hero Leslie Jones going off about Milo Yiannopoulos’s book deal, which is pretty much exactly what we needed after we heard publishing giant Simon & Schuster offered the man dubbed the world’s biggest troll $250,000 to type words.
Amidst mountains of backlash — from Sarah Silverman and Rainbow Rowell, among countless others — the company took to Twitter to defend themselves on December 30th, saying while they condemn “hate speech” like Yiannopoulos’s, they also aim to publish “a wide range of authors with greatly varying, and frequently controversial opinions,” and that hateful views published by the company “belong to [their] authors, and do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of [its] employees.”
Jones, who became Yiannopoulos’s most famous target when he encouraged his formerly sizable Twitter following to attack her with racist words and images back in July, had something to say about that.
yea but you still help them spread their hate to even more people.
— Leslie Jones 🦋 (@Lesdoggg) January 2, 2017
Slay, queen!
Yiannopoulous was banned from Twitter after his assault on Jones received international media backlash, but the British Breitbart News editor — a hero of the so-called “alt right” — hasn’t backed down when it comes to his desire to harass and offend.
“Every line of attack the forces of political correctness try on me fails pathetically,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive statement. “I’m more powerful, more influential and more fabulous than ever before, and this book is the moment Milo goes mainstream. Social justice warriors should be scared — very scared.”
However, Jones — currently the unofficial star of Saturday Night Live‘s legendary Weekend Update segment — isn’t scared of Yiannopoulos or his hate at all. Instead, she’s busy being featured as one of Late Night with Seth Meyers‘ Women of 2016 alongside Jennifer Lawrence, binge-watching Real Housewives of Atlanta, and (of course!) looking and feeling freaking fabulous.
It sucks so, so bad that hateful humans like Yiannopoulous continue to spread their bigoted thoughts via social media — and now, thanks to Simon & Schuster, via expensive book deals, too. But while evil continues to exist, so do people like Leslie freaking Jones, who spread joy, laughter, and a desire to live better to everyone they meet (and tweet).
In other words — keep slaying, Leslie. We’ve got your back.
