As it happens, Alex Jones is also enjoying his prerogative to sue others for defamation. And it's going to come down to a jury that decides whether those being sued by Alex Jones are liable for his stated damages.
The only terrifying precedent is to allow shameless grifters like Alex Jones to lie with complete impunity no matter how much harm his lies cause.
If you lie under oath don’t expect a free speech argument to work. Similarly if you personally spread damaging lies, free speech doesn’t help etc etc.
Free speech is most protected when when you take a political or religious stance, but the boundaries shrink dramatically when you talk about someone specific especially if they are simply a member of the general public.
No free speech is harmed here and the First Amendment protects you from the government silencing your speech.
He absolutely is.
"This is what the erosion of personal responsibility and accountability looks like. "
Quite the opposite, Jones is being being made accountable for the harm he caused the parents of the Sandy Hook victims.
There aren't laws against defamation and libel because it's super meany. It's because the damages people sustain from having lies spread around town about them.
This is not “chilling to free speech”.
Spewing hatred and demonstrably false utter bullshit and stirring up people knowingly is what he has and continues to do. Just like any number of other sociopathic fuckwits out there and through the ages.
“Personal responsibility and accountability “ is exacty what he’s being held accountable for because /his/ actions, /his/ drivel, /his/ psychotic vitriol was /knowingly/, /willingly/, and /joyfully/ used to cause these problems.
Your logic would dictate that no one is ever at fault for causing anything. It’s the dipshits who are dumb enough to go with them who are at fault.
I mean, step back and listen to yourself for a moment.
Unless you are too far gone you MIGHT recognize the absurdity of your views.
I am so fucking tired of human trash like him, Glenn Beck, Joe Rogan, Trump, insert hundreds of other pieces of shit getting to do literally whatever they want because “personal accountability” dictates that what they said was just words and free speech and they aren’t at fault.
Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break.
I'm not sure anyone is seriously attributing the conspiracy theory to him, they are attributing to him that he spread it, publicly attacking the families while making money doing so.
But he constantly repeated it using his very loud platform in an effort to make money.
Sorry to invoke Godwin's law so early.
He could have anticipated his actions would lead to these outcomes.
There's quite a few passages in the bible (among many books) that, if recited, could be described as "stochastic terrorism". That is, they could "inspire violence". However, I'm sure double standards would be applied rigorously - to make sure it's not a problem for "the right people".
If that's his actual "crime", I don't like the way this is going. What goes around, comes around.
And even ignoring that then YES, YES they should be held accountable if they are knowingly spewing falsehoods and stirring up people and it causes shit like that.
“Free speech” != “I can be a total fuckwad and say whatever so want without any repercussions!”
Sue the individuals who actually committed the acts of harassment, not Alex Jones. The people actually responsible for the harassment are getting away with it unscathed here, while a performer is punished. This isnt justice.
What's really abhorrent is that people are invoking "freedom" (in this case of speech) to defend someone who is a major player in the movement toward authoritarian control over literally every part of our lives. If I hadn't lost all respect for such people decades ago, I certainly would now.
If the split so nicely mirrored political boundaries we wouldn't be having this discussion. We're having this discussion because incompatible ideologies are fighting for control of one country.