今日吃瓜

On Tuesday, leaked photos revealed the husband of Kristi Noem, former DHS secretary, Bryon Noem, wearing large inflated balloons under his shirt, the knots positioned outward to resemble nipples.

The Daily Mail鈥檚 expos茅, where were first published, garnered widespread media attention, thanks in part to the controversial headline: 鈥�

The expos茅 included reports that Bryon participated in online Fetish chatrooms where he crossdressed and sent large sums of money to women, including at least $25,000 via Cash App and PayPal.

The Daily Mail claims the report was released due to 鈥渘ational security concerns鈥�, though others point to the obvious potential virality of kink-shaming as a more accurate motive.

As aptly wrote for Reason, 鈥淎rmed federal agents shooting citizens for protesting cruel immigration policies? We’ve aired that episode at least twice already! But wait鈥攚hat if the husband of the woman presiding over those extrajudicial killings dressed himself up with comically uneven fake nipples and a duck face pout and sent those photos to sex workers? Now that’s sure to get ratings鈥︹��.

In the aftermath of the expose, Brown鈥檚 parody rings true, with many conservatives appearing more outraged by one man鈥檚 private bimbofication kink than by any of the lethal atrocities overseen and defended by Kristi Noem during her tenure as DHS Secretary.

Conservative social media activist Robby Starbuck called the revelation of Bryon鈥檚 bedroom habits 鈥渄isturbing鈥�, claiming 鈥淲e have to have lines. Period.”

Meanwhile, others are wondering why no such lines were drawn at the state execution of Renee Good and Alex Pretti earlier this year, who Kristi Noem accused of domestic terrorism.

Noem argued the ICE agents who committed the civilian murders were acting in self-defence, contradicting video evidence showing them to be unarmed and nonviolent.

Ren茅e Good was a writer, poet, and mother. Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse.

In light of the controversy that should surround Noem, libertarian journalist Nick Gillespie has emphasized just how benign her husband鈥檚 crossdressing truly is. “At least he did this on his own dime and without shooting protesters in the face,” he commented.

Brown, author of Reason’s biweekly newsletter, has called on the left not to resort to ad hominum attacks, regardless of how much disdain they hold for the Noem family name. 鈥淒on’t kink shame Bryon Noem,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd don’t delight in this invasion of his privacy.

Even if you don’t care about him, a standard where it’s ok to publicize and mock people’s private sexual antics if they’re on the “wrong” side means, effectively, you have no standard against these things at all.鈥�