“Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.”

— Penn Jillette

2010s, I don't know, so I'm an atheist libertarian (2011)
Context: Government is force — literally, not figuratively.
I don't believe the majority always knows what's best for everyone. The fact that the majority thinks they have a way to get something good does not give them the right to use force on the minority that don't want to pay for it. If you have to use a gun, I don't believe you really know jack. Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the w…" by Penn Jillette?

Penn Jillette 49

American magician 1955

Related quotes

“So they come up against weird words, and the weird words excite them.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Salon interview (1996)
Context: It’s fun to read things when you don't know all the words. Even children love it. One of the things any great children’s writer will tell you is that children like it if in books designed for their age group there is a vocabulary just slightly bigger than theirs. So they come up against weird words, and the weird words excite them. If you describe a small girl in a story as “loquacious,” it works so much better than “talkative.” And then some little girl will read the book and her sister will be shooting her mouth off and she will say to her sister, “Don't be so loquacious.” It is a whole new weapon in her arsenal.

“She glared at him. “I'm not weird like that. I'm good weird. I'm cool weird.”
“Yes,” he said doubtfully. “Yes, you are.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Playing with Fire

“Google was not a normal place at all. There was just all kinds of weird stuff going on. I would just walk around and check stuff out like the kid in Willy Wonka going around the chocolate factory.”

Biz Stone (1974) American blogger; co-founder of Twitter

“'Google was Not a Normal Place': Brin, Page, and Mayer on the Accidental Birth of the Company That Changed Everything” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/valley-of-genius-excerpt-google, in Vanity Fair (10 July 2018).