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As a libertarian I’ve always had a difficult time reconciling government intervention/ discrimination in people’s private lives. Government should err on the side of protecting liberty, not suppressing it. And when it comes to deciding who you love – or how you wish to be identified – well, those things are core to the individual liberty of consenting adults.
Up to a point, anyway …
Beyond that, a fundamental equal protection provision is embedded within the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – one which holds that government is not permitted to discriminate in the administration of its core services.
While it is vital to uphold these basic legal protections, there is an all-too-frequently forgotten flip side to this coin: The freedom to discriminate. That’s right. We have the right as citizens of a free country – now and forever – to like or dislike other people for any reason we choose. More importantly, we have the right to express those likes or dislikes pretty much as we see fit – and to engage the free market as part of our self-expression.
You know, voting with your wallet.
To wit: I will never hire a “furry.” Ever. And while I’ve been sober for seventeen-and-a-half years, I would sooner drink the urine of a rabid wombat than the woke swill of Bud Light. But those are my wallet’s choices. You get to make yours.
I’ve written often on these pages about free expression. And about the marketplace of ideas. These are indispensable bedrocks to the functioning of a free society – and are essential to the cultivation of critical, independent thought. I’ve also written often on the notion of competing liberties – and how best to balance them as it relates to disputes arising within the marketplace of ideas.
“Your right to swing your arm leaves off where my right not to have my nose struck begins,” prohibitionist John B. Finch famously said during an 1882 address in Iowa City.
Imagine a prohibitionist expressing a libertarian maxim so adroitly? Unheard of … right?
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But there are (and must be) limits to freedom – namely when its exercise infringes upon the greater freedoms of others. Two years ago, we saw perhaps the most glaring example of this when the NCAA – one of the institutions enabling America’s descent into woke insanity – awarded swimmer Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania its women’s 500-yard freestyle national championship (even though Thomas is a biological male and competed for two years as such).
The honor was – literally – a celebration of cheating.
Look, I have no problem referring to Thomas by her preferred pronouns and respecting her life choices – so long as she’s not shoving those “choices” in my face (and so long as she is not attempting to use the restroom with one of my daughters). I think her choice is indicative of mental illness – and that pretending otherwise is contributing to the downfall of our societal order – but I would never think of treating her disrespectfully. I will, however, be double dipped in boiling excrement before consenting to her competing on a so-called “level playing field” with real women.
Why? Because she’s not a real woman. And allowing her to compete against real women is not a level playing field. It’s a violation of women’s rights.
“The hill I will die on every time is when liberty is imperiled,” I wrote two years ago in condemning the NCAA. “The hill I will die on every time is this absurd notion that inherent unfairness can somehow promote equality. That aspirational inclusion can somehow justify actual exclusion. And that those who refuse to fall in line with this insane new orthodoxy are somehow morally inferior to those attempting to foist it upon us and our children.”
And make no mistake: They are trying to foist it upon our children.
Calling out the craziness of the trans-woke complex is Dave Chappelle – a comedic genius whose brand new Netflix special, dubbed The Dreamer, started streaming on the platform on December 31, 2023. I’ve been a Chappelle fan for decades. He is brilliantly blunt, but more importantly he’s unflinchingly brave – willing to stand up and say things people desperately need to hear even if it means subjecting himself to relentless censorship and trolling.
It’s a rare skill to be able to make people laugh. It’s rarer still to be able to make them laugh and think at the same time. Doing both of those things while flying in the face of the vanguard of current thought?
Here are some excerpts from Chappelle’s new show, which was filmed at Lincoln Theatre in his hometown of Washington, D.C.
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Not surprisingly, the woke mob responding by clutching its pearls in one hand and grasping its pitchforks in the other – with a flood of indignant corporate media headlines and snipy echo chamber columns assailing Chappelle for his insensitive jokes.
“His commitment to attacking an already marginalized community is basically his brand now,” Stephanie Holland wrote for The Root. “Here’s the thing: Not only are his jokes not funny, they’re not clever. Honestly, the way he keeps working so hard to make this controversy happen during every special is kind of tired and sad.”
Actually, here’s the thing: It’s not up to Holland to say whether Chappelle’s jokes are funny. That’s up to you. And to me. And by her own logic, if she wanted to deny Chappelle his purported objective of generating controversy – which makes him money – shouldn’t she simply have ignored his act?
NBC columnist Jacques Berlinerblau blasted Chappelle as a “religious conservative” who is obsessed with “nonheterosexual people.” He also accused the comedian of opportunistically exploiting the First Amendment.
“He can frame the backlash to his truth as viewpoint discrimination, an assault on free speech,” Berlinerblau wrote.
The nerve of Chappelle, right? Relying on those pesky constitutional protections …
Our friends at Zero Hedge had the definitive takedown of Chappelle’s critics – and of the broader woke-trans orthodoxy.
“The trans movement exists in this kind of bubble, a place where objective truth is no longer welcome and cognitive dissonance is encouraged for the sake of comfort,” they noted. “And much like any oppressive environment the more people self-censor to avoid rocking the boat the harder it is for individuals to speak their minds. This is how consent is manufactured; by creating the illusion of consensus.”
At this media outlet, we will always speak our minds. We will never self-censor – or consent to something we believe to be wrong. Having said that, we will also always open our microphone to those who disagree with us – and allow them to share their views with our audience.
“The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market,” supreme court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once wrote.
We should remember that … especially in a culture in which people are trying to decide for the rest of us what’s funny. And attacking those who don’t fit the mold.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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14 comments
Statistically speaking if Mrs Folks keeps birthin’ dem babies one or more might be gay/trans.
Thank you Nanker Phelge for epitomizing the lack of intellectual points in the trans movement.
The point stands, even if you are incapable of responding to it.
Don’t you think it’s weird how you obsess over strangers genitalia?
If you are bothered by trans people, then that’s what you are really thinking about.
You sicko perv.
I think the last times I even heard about this guy was when he was on stage with Elon getting booed, and when he got butthurt over the kids at his old school not fawning over him. Dude’s just not all that funny anymore, he’s really upset people just don’t laugh at his crappy jokes outside of the conservatives who are triggered over trans people existing.
Hope he enjoys only being relevant to right wing chuds. At least he isn’t full on praising hitler like Kanye, but damn, I mean, you’d have to dig a trench to get under that bar.
Oh come on!?!
Don’t you remember getting drunk and coked up at 5 Points and yelling “I’m Rick James, Bitch!!!!” incessantly with your, bros???
Those were the good times….
“ Government should err on the side of protecting liberty, not suppressing it.”
OK, so what about your stance on government restricting women’s right to make their own medical decisions?
What about your stance on government going after trans people?
How can you be a diehard MAGA Republican, who is fully behind Trump, who says right out loud that he will be a “dictator” if elected again?
How can you support a party that is openly anti-freedom and liberty?
Please, go find a shred of self-awareness. Get help, ask one of your kids (the gay one).
Liberty and freedom is what Will thinks it is, so if he decides your freedom isn’t a real freedom, then it isn’t. Bam! Checkmate libs!
Will-I am so conflicted. You do such an amazing job writing a piece like this that is so relevant and so believable. Legit journalism. But did you & Jenn really go after Mandy and Liz in the dark underworld of Reddit with crazy people? Or anything like it? Say it ain’t so…and convince me that you’re telling the truth. The evidence otherwise seems insurmountable. Me thinks they would not risk life and career by libel, slander or defamation.
Where do we look this up? *grabs another handful of popcorn* Sounds good!
Ooooooh, found it!
This blog is so entertaining with its un-ironic takes and typical intra-MAGA drama. Finding the Reddit stuff is just more free bonus content!
Will Folks used to comment here under his own blog posts using different names until he got called out on it.
So, it would not be surprising if he was harassing people on Reddit.
What’s a “furry”?
So Dave said he would say he was a woman so he could sexually assault women if he was sent to prison?
The “truth” you are eluding to, is that conservative men want to abuse women by any means necessary. You are projecting your own hatred of women on to trans people and it’s beyond sad.
It’s no surprise a convicted woman beater, like Will Folks, is struggling with his own sexuality. I bet TRav has some stories to tell about his former scrub;-)