Last year, Simon & Schuster awarded professional provocateur Milo Yiannopoulis a $250K book contract for a book on “free speech.” Today, they took that contract away after videotapes resurfaced in which he condoned pedophilia–oops, pederasty, which he claims is an important distinction.

In the videotapes, Milo expressed gratitude to a Catholic priest who molested him at 14 because, “I wouldn’t give nearly such good head if it wasn’t for Father Michael.” He went on to defend “some of those relationships between younger boys and older men — the sort of ‘coming of age’ relationship — in which older men help young boys discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable, sort of rock, where they can’t speak to their parents.”

That was what finally tipped him over the ok-to-publish line. Suddenly his message wasn’t “free speech.” He’d finally attacked a group whose humanity isn’t up for debate.  Milo Yiannopoulis has spent years crafting a brand message that savages women, minorities, gays, Muslims, Jews, the disabled. He calls feminism “bowel cancer” and insists that sexual harassment is “really just a way for women to brag they’ve been hit on.” He was banned from Twitter for leading a prolonged and vicious hate campaign against Leslie Jones for being black and female. (And we know how hard it is to get haters banned there.) On Bill Maher the other night, he claimed he “hurts people for a reason.” The reason being he feels oppressed by political correctness which demands that he–and white men–regard the feelings of others.

The first amendment prevents you from being arrested for what you say. It doesn’t entitle you to a book contract or college tours, it doesn’t shield you from people getting angry at you for insulting them or from conferences disinviting you (CPAC, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, just pulled him as keynoter.)

Milo’s vitriolic brand message isn’t about free speech. It’s about freedom from consequences when you say things to hurt people. It’s about feeling so entitled, you think the social contract should be altered so you’re free to abuse anyone.

I was dismayed that my publisher was fine with publishing a sexist, racist bigot, and asked them a few weeks ago to release me from contract. I’m grateful they dropped him, but appalled that what took them to draw the line was when he tried to normalize pedophilia. Their decision no doubt had something to do with pedophilia being buzzkill for books targeted to mainstream conservatives.

Here’s a handy viz to remind what the first amendment actually covers.