Freedom of Speech = Freedom from Responsibility?

[dwer.livejournal.com]

So, I know, I know. It's Glenn Beck. We expect the whacko from him. And, of course, he's got every right to speak his mind; I certainly don't think he should be censored.

But at what point does he become responsible for the actions of people who follow his advice?



Buy farmland. Move to places where everyone is like you. Buy guns. Buy ammunition. And then... what? It's not like enclaving really works long term. Eventually, one of two things will happen.

1) After Obama's term ends without the world doing the same, maybe some of these people will pull their heads out and say "why did we listen to that guy?"
2) Someone provokes an incident.

The message sent by the American people this election was quite clear. The President won a resounding electoral victory and beat his opponent by more votes than Bush beat Kerry. Every competitive senate race save for one was taken by the democrats, and these aren't blue-dogs we're talking about; these are real progressive liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin. And while the GOP retained the House, they did lose seats, and more people voted for Democratic Congresspeople than Republicans.

It was a fundamental rejection of GOP ideology. It was a rejection of the rape brigade, a rejection of the Ryan budget plan, a rejection of the concepts of the Makers and Takers, a rejection of the concept of the 47%, a rejection of conservative definitions of marriage, women, LGBTQ, race, immigration and drug law.

But the GOP doesn't seem to want to believe it. The constant refrain of "Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed" continues to sing in their ears, drowning out anything resembling the truth, which is that they lost and they lost big, and then they turn to people like Glenn Beck, and he tells them to buy farms, move to where everyone is like you, and get more guns.

Or this guy, who advocates cutting EVERY democrat in your life out of that life, to the point where he doesn't know if he'd rescue a democrat who was drowning, and thinks that he can get better brain surgery in Mexico than from a US brain surgeon who happened to vote differently than he did.

Or these people who think that losing an election is a national emergency so they, who so often rail about how burning the flag is treasonous, fly their flags upside down to indicate distress.



At their McDonalds.

And why do they do this?

Because they've been lied to, by the guy at the top of this post. By Rush. By Karl Rove. By http://www.unskewedpolls.com By every pundit who insisted that Nate Silver was cheating. Hell, GOP donors are angry because they were assured, ASSURED, I TELL YOU, that Romney was going to win based on bad data using bad algorithms, and a campaign that wasn't going to be dictated to by facts.

So what responsibility to these people have to tell the truth, I wonder? Of course, I think they should tell the truth. There are reasonable arguments to be made on policy. There are reasonable disagreements to have. I just wish we could see more of that, and less insistence that Obama is a kenyan radical christian muslim nazi communist.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

There's no responsibility on their part to tell the truth by a strict reading of free speech. They can keep lying themselves to irrelevance all they want, and nobody has the right to stop them. In fact the politically astute would help them immolate themselves if they're hellbent on doing it. ;)

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The batshit FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) is strong with this one.

It is possible to incite humans into panic.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Buy farmland. Move to places where everyone is like you. Buy guns. Buy ammunition. And then... what?

Go about their lives?

All my neighbors do all of the above, every day. *shrugs*

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

OMG PEOPLE ARE MOVING TO MONTANA WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Glenn is going to be a farmer? Will he hire migrant farmworkers to pick his crops?

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

Hopefully things will calm down eventually and nothing will be provoked. *fingers crossed*

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

But at what point does he become responsible for the actions of people who follow his advice?

He doesn't

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

We have a winner.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

He has the right to be an influential moron sucking other gullible imbeciles into his Moronarchy of Montana. 1st amendment FTW!

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

So, if you lie and incite someone to violence, then nothing is on you?

[oportet.livejournal.com]

Aside from the potential for threats to become more than threats - anyone on the left should be happy that people like Rush and Glenn lead the right. Your rival team has shitty coaches - and until they fire them the seesaw will keep tilting your way a little more. Big picture - if the donors are pissed enough, this will be good for the right in the long run.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

No! We already have too many Queenslanders!

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Hey, dude, at least they aren't rioting. Small blessings.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Obama is gonna do all these things that he didn't do when he had two years of a Senate super-majority and a House that managed to pass the stimulus and Obamacare!

Selective memory is never going to end. Tell people the truth and they'll just ignore it.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

He makes a lot of money by being a crazy on air personality.

Let the buyer beware.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

"Not the one eating the pie is the crazy one - the one giving them the pie, is".

-- Bulgarian folk proverb

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

There is certainly a niche industry for catering to survivalist whites. I don't believe he actually purchased farmland -- I am not sure he even believes half his bullshit.

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

This analogy is going to offend people, but I think it fits so please bear with me and keep in mind I'm a fat guy myself so I don't mean this in a hateful way toward fat people...

I see conservatives these days as fat people who try to take pictures of themselves from more flattering angles. They think reality is a matter of perspective, but no matter what angle they use it won't change the FACT that they are fat.

*dodges incoming tomatoes*

It's a dangerous mindset because it's not based on reality and it encourages delusional thinking. But they have a First Amendment right to those delusions so there isn't much that can be done. It's easier to fool people than it is to convince them they've been fooled.

[ironhawke.livejournal.com]

+1000000

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

GOP need to get themselves some photoshop.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

As soon as the GOP shows willingness for introspection and identifying the areas where they fail, they'll be able to make amendments and actually win an election. So far, spending money into oblivion and accumulating astronomic debt hasn't been able to torpedo the Democrats as much as it could, had the Republicans not been so much worse than them. That should tell the GOP something profound about themselves - if they were willing to listen. I'm sure the GOP has plenty of valid points to make, and besides it needs to make them urgently - but somehow all attempts to articulate them have been drowned in a barrage of bullshit and rant. That's sad.

Ultimately, this imbalance in the political discourse affects the whole American society, and not in a good way.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

As soon as the GOP shows willingness for introspection and identifying the areas where they fail, they'll be able to make amendments and actually win an election.

The problem is that the left and the right cannot agree on where the right is failing. Plenty of introspection is occurring - the results are not answers the left cares to hear, because of delusions like this post.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

It was a fundamental rejection of GOP ideology. It was a rejection of the rape brigade, a rejection of the Ryan budget plan, a rejection of the concepts of the Makers and Takers, a rejection of the concept of the 47%, a rejection of conservative definitions of marriage, women, LGBTQ, race, immigration and drug law.



As always, repeating something false over and over will not make it true.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

As always, repeating something false over and over will not make it true.

I would have thought this should be biggest takehome lesson for the GOP from Tuesday.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Is Glenn Beck responsible for the eventual paranoid listener who decides to carry out his or her stoked fears to a twisted conclusion?

Morally, likely. But not legally -- not anymore than he is responsible for the vast majority of his listeners who believe everything he says while NOT carrying out violent responses. That which takes someone from being horribly misinformed and paranoid to actual violence is a far more complicated chain of causality than can be linked to that person's viewing habits.

What *IS* Beck responsible for? Helping to make his listeners stupid, misinformed, myopic, unbalanced, and obsessed with things that are not true. He has influence as a "teacher" of sorts, and he leads those who have given him undeserved trust to places that are inane, stupid and degrading to our body politic just as anti-vax advocates lead people to conclusions that are medically inept and not in the best interest of society as a whole.

And for THAT Mr. Beck deserves to be pilloried and treated as the snake oil salesman that he is.