Donate to Reason, Because Who Else Will Protect Your Right to Show Unicorn Masturbation Scenes While Serving Alcohol?
Think how many times you've said to yourself, "only in Reason...." There's a reason for that. (DRINK!)
Even though we've already had a Facebook Live mini-telethon, a Reason TV retrospective, a grand kick-off, and already around 200 donations here in the first 24 hours of Reason's annual webathon—in which we ask all of you, our very favorite readers and viewers and commenters, to contribute some of your traditional or crypto currency to the 501(c)3 nonprofit that makes all of our journalism and commentary here possible—the most persuasive if unintentional argument for our work this week just might have come from conservative commentator Matthew Walther. Writing in The Week about how "Conservatism is dead," Walther uncorks this fastball to the backstop:
Reason magazine thinks that the rights of pornographers and white supremacists are in need of safeguarding.
Why yes, yes we do. Libertarians believe that rights for all people need safeguarding. It's kind of the point.
This is the best @reason webathon pitch yet.
— Michael J. Green (@Close_watcher) November 28, 2017
Granted, this is confusing to people who need to fit everything into boxes marked "Team Red" or "Team Blue." For instance, watch The New York Times torture political adjectives in a piece last week about the Koch brothers (one of whom sits on Reason's Board of Trustees) gearing up to participate in the purchase of Time Inc.:
Their foundations have helped fund organizations affiliated with conservative media outlets, including the libertarian Reason magazine and the Daily Caller website.
Um, sure.
The misuse and abuse of "libertarian" is one of the few examples of journalistic legerdemain that is even more egregious than the misuse of "neocon."
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) November 18, 2017
This is why we're gathered here today, to get through this thing called life, liberty, and the pursuit. This is why we hope you will donate to Reason right the hell now. Because in your heart, you know there's only one publication ready to serve you headlines like….
"D&D Creator Gary Gygax's FBI Records Make Him Sound Like a Badass"
"How a Blue Butterfly Stamp Brought Down One of the Dark Web's Biggest Marijuana Vendors"
"Deported for Giving a Handjob?"
And, obviously, "Young Louis Farrakhan Sings a Calypso Song About Transgender Surgery"
It's not because we're all closet yoga-goatherders or even D&D players here (though I understand there's an office Slack channel I need to be more aware of), but rather that edge cases are often where case law is made, and precisely where loyalists of one of the two dominant-if-eroding political tribes will turn their backs on, depending on the perceived virtue of the affected class. So yes, bikini baristas and gene-editors and body-sculptors and even armless droids—we've got you covered. And should ever the government get enough in your business that you feel the need to march on Washington, we'll be there with cameras.
The world might not fully get it, but dammit, you do. Won't you donate to Reason today?