Tonight on our on-site episode of Free Talk Live, I sat down for a bit with Constance to talk about changes that Porcfest has seen over the last several years, and we ended the segment by discussing the nudists and why they were pushed to the very back edge of the campground. Her answer was basically that, despite the fact that there were no incidents last year, there was a lot of complaining online after-the-fact about the nudists, and a lot of discussion about (seriously) seeing nudity somehow being a NAP violation.

Last night I went to the nudist part of the campaign, and I had looked for it a few nights previously, but to my surprise it turned out that I didn’t go quite far back enough, and when they said “back of the campground,” that is truly what they meant.

This little corner way on the left side of the map, up in the corner–if you’ve ever really walked Roger’s Campground, then you’ll know that this part of the campground is so far out of the way that it’s only barely considered part of the campground. The road there doesn’t even go all the way down. The nudists have been literally tucked into the back of the corner, away from everyone and everything.

It’s difficult to say, when hanging out with the nudists, that they are even part of the Porcupine Freedom Festival. They’re now allowed anywhere outside of that space without putting on clothes. One would expect libertarians to innately be against this sort of thing; after all, if we forced people to put on facemasks in order to leave a secluded zone and join the rest of Porcfest, libertarians would (rightly) angrily revolt against the idea. As Jeff said, “If you can require people to wear pants, then you can require people to wear masks.”

He’s not wrong.

While I am not a nudist (and, to my knowledge, none among the Free Talk Live hosts consider themselves nudists/naturists), I fully support the right of people to dress themselves however they are most comfortable, because I can see what a very small step it is from “My kids are uncomfortable with nudity” to “My kids are uncomfortable with men wearing women’s clothes” and finally to “My kids are uncomfortable with trans people.”

For teh kids?

This is a nonsensical take to suggest that one is protecting children from something that they do not consider shameful or harmful. It is not until parents make a big deal about nudity do children suddenly feel violated; it is identical to a child hurting themselves and not crying or considering it a big deal until the parent rushes over and asks, “Oh, god, are you okay?” Just as it is by the prompting of the parent that the child begins crying, so is it by the prompting of the parent that the child starts to think that nudity is somehow wrong.

Kids react to nudity without a reaction. There are usually tiny children running around completely naked at Porcfest, and neither they nor the adults who see it think twice about it. “It’s just kids being kids.” This serves as pretty obvious proof that kids don’t really care about nudity, but instead learn it from their parents. “Don’t look at that man! That’s disgraceful! That woman should be wearing clothes! Don’t look at them! Shameful!”

Only then does the child begin to think nudity is wrong.

Nudity at Porcfest

Last year, there were no incidents at Porcfest. The previous year, some people got upset online about a nudist wearing a grass skirt or something bizarre like that, and this year one of the seasonals grabbed a knife and chased after one of the nudists. He was disarmed without injury, but this was a predictable result of putting the nudists–most likely to upset the conservative Trump supporter than even myself–out in the back with the seasonal inhabitants of the campground. This attack must be considered to be at least partially the responsibility of Free State Project, Inc., which made the decision to put the nudists back there among that crowd.

Are nudists welcome at Porcfest or not?

The answer is clearly “Not.” Nudists aren’t at Porcfest; they’re in the Body Freedom Zone which exists outside of Porcfest. If they want to enter Porcfest, they have to put on clothing; this is, again, no different from telling someone that if they want to enter Porcfest then they have to put on a facemask. It is likewise no different from telling someone that if they want to enter Porcfest, they must wear men’s clothes if they have a penis, or must wear a top at all times.

Through this conversation with Constance, which will air tonight at 7p EST, I was told that we could have a nude event here at the Free Talk Live site. Once upon a time, the sites were considered private property, and I would not have needed anyone’s permission to have an event at my site. But while Porcfest has been decentralizing as a small scale, control over what people can and can’t do here has been increasing, as have the bans against long-time attendees (in fact, “the Snack Jew” was banned again this year because he refused to “respect the authoritah” of the ban last year).

It would be amusing if it wasn’t true.

LRN.FM actually attempted to host a strip poker game Tuesday (was it Wednesday?) night at RV46, which is the site on which we record the show. Unfortunately, I was the only one who showed up ready to play poker and get naked [editor’s note: This isn’t a great loss, as the majority of people who play poker in the Shire Society lounge each night are usually not the type of person one would like to see naked], and so the game didn’t happen.

I have placed Body Freedom Friendly signs around the Free Talk Live site here, and I will stand by anyone who wishes to wear the attire of their choosing at our site, whether that is a bikini, women’s clothing, men’s clothing, no clothing, or the clothing of an intergalactic space wizard.

It was also my intention to have “MASKS REQUIRED” signs printed, so that I could juxtapose them with the Body Freedom Friendly signs. Libertarians attending the festival would certainly have stopped and asked, “How can you be friendly to body freedom while requiring people to wear masks?”

To this, of course, I would have responded, “If you can require people to wear pants, then you can require them to wear masks.”

Masks would never be required at the Free Talk Live site, either, and we strongly discourage people from wearing facemasks. It would purely have been to draw the hypocrisy to the attention of those conservatives (who shouldn’t be here) who take issue with body freedom. But this is because we are pro-liberty, on every issue, every time. The pro-liberty position is here.

Besides, aren’t most of these people Christians?

Christ would tell you to gouge out your eyes.