Well, now you’ve done it. You called me stupid. I knew I shouldn’t have come out of the safe zone. Dammit!

Any baker should be free to serve, or not serve, anyone he pleases. Same as any private business owner. Hell, I’d see it as a business opportunity. As a straight guy who fully supports gay rights, I (if I weren’t flat broke) might start a bakery catering exclusively to gays if they were not served by the other baker in my little town. It’s about freedom, in this case freedom of association.

If my business succeeds, everybody wins. If it fails, I lose, nobody else. No harm done. When someone is forced to do something, anything, against their will, that person is harmed. When the power of the State is used it becomes doubly bad, as not only is the coercee harmed, but others who disagree are forced to finance the coercing.

For sure there are things we have to do collectively. Defense, a transportation system, courts to adjudicate disputes, etc. These things have always had broad agreement. But, when the state expands into every nook and cranny of society and exerts it’s power over the private, non-harm-causing affairs of individuals and small groups, we give them the power to rule us all. Talk about deplorables!

So I’ll come back to the idea that the free market does more good for more people than any government ever could. When we ask the State to regulate every whit of our existence (like our Bakers) we give them the tools to slice us up into controllable little pieces. And that’s the most dangerous situation of all.