Free Speech is not Graffiti
Free Speech is not Graffiti
What happened to Alex Jones is how a democracy is supposed to work
I know this will be lost on the typical, dyed in the wool, chewy blue, MSNBC loving shit lib. What happened to Alex Jones in the Sandy Hook lawsuit is exactly how the system is supposed to work. Now, I understand that some progressives hate when I say, “shit lib,” because that’s not how one unifies people, does one?
Well, who cares? These are the very same maniacs who called many of us Trumpers, or Russian Puppets and the like in 2017. Back then, Jones was banned off all social media. His tort was egregious, to say the least; calling the Sandy Hook massacre a fraud and that the kids were “crisis actors.” He even went so far as to dox the parents. When the ban went down, it was my opinion (proven true) that more lefty and progressive sites would be de-platformed, de-monetized or banned. That’s exactly what happened. Not even two weeks went by when over 700 cop watch, pro Palestinian and environmental web sites, among others, were just disappeared.
The typical response after Donald Trump was uniformly vanished was the same, “Yay! The mean Orange Man, bad!” Close to a thousand of the same kinds of sites were taken down. Oh sure, there were a couple of the Qanon types that got banned but it was mostly left leaning, anti-war or to be more blunt, parties who were telling the truth about the establishment. By truth, I mean the crimes of apartheid Israel, the Syrian War, what Hilary really did, even down to Hunter Biden’s laptop. We now know (when it's too late) that the story was true there as well, and yet the New York Post was suspended from Twitter.
The Alex Jones case is what democracy does without interference. We have Freedom of Speech in the U.S., albeit theoretically. However, when we use the laws and agencies at our disposal, then we dispense with toddlers howling at the moon demanding to be “protected.” I don’t need some faceless, nutless oligarch with a government contract to tell me what’s what. I have a brain and we have laws, district courts, federal courts and other remedies that, by design, are there to curb dangerous and/or libelous abuses to the First Amendment.
There are nine exceptions, set by precedent, to the First Amendment:
1. Obscenity
2. Threatening the life of the president
3. Defamation
4. Child pornography
5. Perjury
6. Blackmail
7. Incitement to imminent lawless action
8. True threats/Fighting Words
9. Solicitations to commit crimes
Some legal experts have also added verbal treason and plagiarism of protected material to the list. These, too, have been tried and have legal precedent. These are the things that protect us from the (gasp!!!) dreaded “fake news.”
Interesting how the war drum thumping New York Times or Washington Post don’t get nailed for war crimes, libel, or slander. Their incessant cheerleading for every war we’ve been in since the inception of those rags has led to more death worldwide and here at home than Alex Jones could ever dream of. Where’s the lawsuit against MSNBC, CNN or Fox? How about every president and cabinet since Truman, if not further back? They are responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and millions of innocent civilians overseas. Between the Korean War to the present debacle in Ukraine, the U.S. is responsible for over twelve million dead, and countless refugees. That’s near Hitler levels! He killed ten million people during the reign of terror known as the Third Reich. In the U.S., however, we’ve been led by the nose to the trough of xenophobia and stupidity. The majority of this nation, the majority of the time, follows right along with every war no matter how mad we were that we got tricked the last time.
Alex Jones is Alex Jones. However, he has far less blood on his hands than Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or Dick Cheney. It doesn’t matter that you think he’s icky, he can still flush a toilet. Those utilities are still his to use, so quit acting like I punched your teddy bear.
Abe Abdelhadi hosts the Bitter Truth with Abe Abdelhadi on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc.