beland
1yr ago
I think the financial incentives here are actually the problem. Alex Jones probably wouldn't bother to say the horrible things he does if he couldn't make money off of it. This sort of court case helps to neutralize that perverse incentive a bit, even though it doesn't go nearly far enough to stop that bad business completely.
beland
1yr ago
The Supreme Court has decided that false claims that cause harm to other people are not protected by the First Amendment. Sure, sometimes it's hard to discern whether or not a claim is true, and it's fair to say courts should avoid intervening in those cases. But in this case, the claims were egregious, obvious lies that caused people to have to flee their homes multiple times for their own personal safety. What would be the public benefit in protecting such speech?
Being trans is not necessarily a mental illness, though gender dysphoria is listed as such. There are plenty of well-adjusted trans people living happy lives, at which point it's a difference, not a disease. It's worth mentioning homosexuality also used to be listed as a mental illness, but that was only because of social prejudice, and is no longer considered such.
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