Dave Chappelle is upset that right-wing fascists are using his jokes for political “rage-baiting.”

“And I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes. I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. I didn’t– that’s not what I was doing.”

What?

I defended Chappelle during all the hubbub around his Netflix special The Closer. I laughed at his trans jokes in that and his previous special, Sticks and Stones, because they were jokes. I don’t agree with “canceling” a comedian for anything they say. If we eliminate all the uncomfortable bits from comedy and comedians, we eliminate half the jokes.

I understand why a lot of trans people take issue with some of the things Chappelle (and others) say. Negative speech normalizes transphobia. That’s real. Language is very important. But comedians—I don’t know, I see them in a special place in culture. They should be able to be offensive if that’s what they need to land their point. At the end of the day, the best comedians are truth tellers.

Can hate speech be wrapped in a “joke”? Sure, it can.

Ayin and I went to the Comedy Store last time we were in Los Angeles, and every male comedian (which was most of them, of course) made shitty anti-trans jokes that weren’t even mildly amusing. They were just expressions of hatred and ignorance wrapped in joke-like formulas. They were ill-intentioned and mean-spirited, and it was a shitty experience to pay money to sit there and listen to them.

But that wasn’t a failing of comedy; that was a failing of bad comedians. Most comedians aren’t good at what they do. Just like any other creative field, we have those who are the best at what they do, the top of the pops, let’s say, and then the ocean of mediocrity everyone else swims in.

I’m always honest with you, you know that, right? So between you and me, with all the horrible shit that trans folks go through every day, I don’t understand losing our minds over some jokes. I may be uncomfortable with it sometimes, but if a comedian makes me laugh, I can take a joke at my expense.

But Chappelle clutching his pearls over the fascists coopting his anti-trans jokes, well, boo hoo, bitch! To boomerang something Chappelle might have said himself back in the day. You put it out there, so you had to know some people hearing it would be laughing for the wrong reasons.

Dave wants to control the narrative because he’s a rich man, and they’re used to controlling the narrative. He feels entitled to control the narrative. But you scattered the nails in the road, Dave; when one of them gives you a flat tire, get over it.

The way we’re expected to “get over it” when you make jokes at our expense.

Or, you know, you could just work a little harder and maybe write some jokes that aren’t about easy targets like trans people. Or I should say trans women, since the jokes are never about trans men. But that’s a whole other story.

And just because I’m okay with a trans joke here and there, that doesn’t mean the trans person next to me will be. Spoiler alert: since we’re all human, we’re all different. Just like you regular (i.e., bland) humans.

Just kidding.

It was a joke, see? You’re not bland and boring if you’re not trans. Not necessarily, anyway. But let’s be honest, you probably are.

Still kidding!

Maybe.

This is just one of those things where, of course, I stand with my trans community, but I still have some deeply held feelings about freedom and creativity that can put me at odds with The Movement from time to time. (Is it a movement? Maybe I should have called it, ‘The Existening,’ as in: Girl, we’re just trying to exist!)

Like, can we talk about canceling for a minute? I totally get the sentiment and understand the emotional reaction, why it might feel good to cancel someone who’s a real piece of garbage. But canceling feels a little book burn-y to me, and burning or banning books or records or films or anything that’s meant to communicate ideas—I have a hard time with that.

But my feelings are mixed. I have trouble articulating the twisty thinking I go through when it comes to these things. When the internet was young, and I was blindly barging around in it, I believed that all information should be free. That we absolutely should have things like KKK websites so people can see how idiotic and horrible they are and, you know, be against that kind of behavior.

What I failed to predict or recognize was how many truly awful people we share the world with. People who see a KKK website and think, “Now, them are some ideas I can get behind!” What do we do with that? What do we do with them? Where is the world that can accommodate freedom of thought while still saying “maybe not” to oppressive or destructive ideas?

I don’t know where that world is. People are messy. We don’t fit into boxes, and laws and rules are boxes. So it would seem that there’s a price for our freedom. And that price is their freedom, whether we like it or not.

It seems like the only things that can eliminate blind hatred are exposure, education, and dismantling the fascist feedback loop. But I fear there’s not enough time left for that.

We’ve got to come together; it could really be as simple as that. But making that happen is way beyond my control.

Maybe people like Dave Chappelle could work on that solution.