I've reconciled my newfound disinterest in the principle of freedom of expression like this:
Lies and threats are already illegal if you lie about a person who has the power and standing to use the court system to enforce that.
If harmfully you lie in the legal system, it's perjury or filing a false report.
If you lie to trick somebody into giving you money (and they can show damages and standing), it's fraud or false advertising.
If you lie to hurt somebody, it's
defamation... again, if they can show damages and standing and they have the money for lawyers
And threats of violence are theoretically illegal but basically you need a good lawyer to get that enforced.
But now, we have vicious rumors about objective facts. Threats against reality itself. Global Warming can't sue for defamation. BLM and Antifa activists aren't even members of a real organization - could they even sue about the vicious lies about them, if they had the money to do so?
If a thousand loosely affiliated people push information about a vague cabal of vampiric pedophiles and one of them snaps and "heroically" kills somebody, who is liable for speeding the defamatory information that led to that death? If it was one, clear person, it would be a clear crime with a clear defendant.... But if it's thousands of anonymous trolls, does that make it legal, or does it simply make the laws judging it illegal impractical to enforce?
I think Dominion Voting Systems is one of the few orgs trapped in this web of deception that is actually a clear legal entity that has standing to sue and can show real damages from all the slander about them.
Basically, harmful lies are theoretically illegal but defacto legal. So I'm okay with finding alternate means to close the gap between theory and practice, in the absence of a proper legal framework.
I'm going to go one step further. Anyone can be antifa, even the facists. Same with blm and racists. There's absolutely no governing body, and from what I've seen, there's at least a visible portion of the antifa who care little for facism opposition and more for wrecking shit.
That's the catch with these movements. Any description of them is by necessity a generalization.
Lies and threats are already illegal if you lie about a person who has the power and standing to use the court system to enforce that.
If harmfully you lie in the legal system, it's perjury or filing a false report.
If you lie to trick somebody into giving you money (and they can show damages and standing), it's fraud or false advertising.
If you lie to hurt somebody, it's defamation... again, if they can show damages and standing and they have the money for lawyers
And threats of violence are theoretically illegal but basically you need a good lawyer to get that enforced.
But now, we have vicious rumors about objective facts. Threats against reality itself. Global Warming can't sue for defamation. BLM and Antifa activists aren't even members of a real organization - could they even sue about the vicious lies about them, if they had the money to do so?
If a thousand loosely affiliated people push information about a vague cabal of vampiric pedophiles and one of them snaps and "heroically" kills somebody, who is liable for speeding the defamatory information that led to that death? If it was one, clear person, it would be a clear crime with a clear defendant.... But if it's thousands of anonymous trolls, does that make it legal, or does it simply make the laws judging it illegal impractical to enforce?
I think Dominion Voting Systems is one of the few orgs trapped in this web of deception that is actually a clear legal entity that has standing to sue and can show real damages from all the slander about them.
Basically, harmful lies are theoretically illegal but defacto legal. So I'm okay with finding alternate means to close the gap between theory and practice, in the absence of a proper legal framework.