Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters/ACUS.gov
“Consent is probably modern society’s most pernicious fetish.”
It would seem bad enough if that internet comment from the newly hired congressional counsel for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was about women. But this statement criticizing the notion of consent—which Gaetz’s counsel, Andrew Kloster, posted in the comments section of a Volokh Conspiracy post sometime around 2013—came in reply to a blog titled, “Government Out of Bedrooms, but into Barnyards,” which endorsed a libertarian framework for rejecting consent as a legitimate basis for bans on bestiality.
Kloster—a self-described “raging misogynist” who was hired in Gaetz’s D.C. office last month—is a prolific tweeter. He seems to find a particular thrill in controversy, which he often folds into his brand of “new right” contrarian conservatism.