(2.4-minute read)
All god’s children have the right to lie! We have the Constitutional freedom of speech to lie if we want. We also have the Constitutional freedom of speech to call out lies. A right MAGA Republicans are trying to take away.
CIC
MAGA Republicans are leading the charge for the right to lie as an inalienable right provided by our Constitution.[i] You know, the Constitution that they are trying to recreate in their own image.[ii] Lying is the absolute key component necessary to motivate their base. The problem they have is that President Trump ended up being Commander in Chief (CIC) and Liar In Charge (LIC). He is who the MAGA Heads believe.
Before I get too deep in this, I’ll provide some reference material for those so inclined to look things up.
An annotated version of our Constitution is here. Now that link is to the government website. MAGA Heads will reject that instantly so I’m also providing a link to the Cornell Law school version of our Constitution annotated here. They are both good and reflect the Supreme Court rulings that affected the Constitution including the reversals. The text of the original Constitution is accessible here. The Constitution is kind of important to us.
Or is it?
The river Jordan
MAGA Heads leadership like Congressman Jim Jordan, a coup plotter, call fact-checking by big tech censorship.[iii] The truth is inimical to their achieving their goals of perverting the Constitution to suit their immediate needs. He believes that private sector social media along with news organizations have the obligation to disseminate MAGA lies.
Do they?
Private
They want the private sector to share their lies as well.
This blog that I do is in the private sector.
Freedom of speech in our Constitution primarily, not exclusively, deals with speech in relation to private citizens and the government. People need to be free to talk about their government. MAGA Republicans do that every chance they get to tell all that will listen that our government is badder than bad and needs torn down. Not everyone agrees with that. We do love to say that we’re better than everyone else. We aren’t.
But is there an absolute right to lie about everything in the private sector? Most of the time, yes. However, the private sector does get to set rules. There are rules about what I can say in my blog.[iv] We are a rules-based society. There isn’t a right to threaten violence or maliciously slander people. Standards for acceptable behavior can be established. Lies can be called out. It isn’t censorship any more than my right to refuse XXX at my blog.
Trump wants to change all that.
https://yadayadayadablahblah.blogspot.com/
[i] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/23/online-misinformation-jim-jordan/
[ii] https://www.commoncause.org/resource/u-s-constitution-threatened-as-article-v-convention-movement-nears-success/
[iii] https://judiciary.house.gov/media/press-releases/jim-jordan-sends-demands-big-tech-companies-ahead-118th-congresss
[iv] https://www.blogger.com/content-policy