Humans of Freedom Fest, Part 2: Portraits from the Largest Annual Gathering of Libertarians
"I'm an anarchist. But when you actually look at what anarchism stands for...it's almost boring."
Editor's note: FreedomFest, held every July in Las Vegas, is the largest annual gathering of libertarians in the country. Today is the first day of the four-day long conference, which is being headlined in its 10th year by William Shatner, John Stossel, Greg Gutfeld, and others. Taking inspiration from the site Humans of New York, Reason is happy to offer Humans of FreedomFest, a series of portraits and brief interviews with various attendees. This is the second installment. To read the first installment, go here.
Valerie Yazawa
What brings you to Freedom Fest?
"Greg Gutfeld."
What do you like about him?
"How calm he is and how fluidly he can make jokes about some of the craziest things you can make jokes about."
Do you try to do that in your life?
"Yeah."
What do you wanna do when you're older?
"I wanna be a dog trainer for guide dogs for the blind."
And you wanna apply Greg Gutfeld's type of humor to that?
"Yeah."
Michael Valle
Do I smell pipe tobacco?
"You know, I survived leukemia five years ago. I had the full bone-marrow transplant. Then they banned smoking. This is the typical do-gooder crap that we expect from the left. So when they came down on tobacco and I had just came out of leukemia, I decided to start smoking… Tobacco smoking is a statement now. It's a statement against P.C. And now I smoke regularly. As a leukemia survivor."
Naomi Brockwell
"I'm an anarchist. When people hear the word, they think of bombs and chaos and no rule of law. I think it's pretty controversial for me to say I'm an anarchist. But when you actually look at what anarchism stands for…it's almost boring."
To read other installments of Humans of FreedomFest, go here.