Argument: Lesson from Trump, Alex Jones, Fox is that libel law insufficient to deter defamers. No, it's insufficient to deter WEALTHY defamers.
But he DID say at least part of that: . "This officer, as his duties were prescribed by that act, is to conform precisely to the will of the President. He is the mere organ by whom that will is communicated. The acts of such an officer, as an officer, can never be examinable by the Courts." So what's the distinction? (Seems to be the reference is not to president as an officer but appointees of the president? I don't M v. M context sufficiently.)
Explain how the court and the govt manage the jury pool in this situation. Unlike almost any other case, some jurors will come in with a pathologically unshakeable allegiance to the defendant. The court should weed them out, but one imagines a full-throated Trumper playing possum, with the goal of doing TFG a solid and protecting the team, in order to get on the jury, where no amount of evidence, rational argument or law will persuade them. It only takes one to hang the jury.
I keep seeing articles, about people trying to violently overturn election results, that use phrases like “motivated by election lies”.
They aren’t motivated by lies, they are motivated by not liking the result. Repeating the lies just makes them feel powerful because it makes them part of the grift. They think they’re fooling people.
Blaming the lies lulls us into thinking that this is an education/disinformation problem which, if addressed, will eliminate the violence.
These folks aren’t deluded. They’ve learned from their leaders that violence and lying are the route to power.
For most of my life I thought these problems could be solved by education. I no longer do. As far as I can tell, about 30% of the population believes that getting away with grifts and bullying people is proof of power and leadership that should be respected, worshiped, and emulated.
We can’t educate these folks. We can only build a society that ensures that they cannot gain control. Unfortunately, the entire human race has largely failed to do so, and we’re suffering the consequences on a planetary scale.
Every day we act as though they don’t *know* that the elections were valid, is a day we risk losing the fight for democracy, equality, and a stable environment.
I teach a beginning media writing class. Students produce deadline stories from fact sheets (deconstructed from actual stories). I pasted several fact sets into the query, and it produced quite servicable news stories, with bona fide summary news ledes, after a couple of tries. Better than what most of my students produced.
What should I take from this?
Kee Hinckley