How Our Over-the-Top ‘Freedom’ Makes Us Less Free, Less Safe, and Less Sane

If there’s one vital lesson to be learned from the paranoid fever dream gripping a third of the U.S., it’s that excessive freedom of speech and too much license and ‘liberty’ can spell doom for modern liberal democracy.

As we arrive at the dreaded 2024 presidential election, the nationwide ‘threat environment’ is ramping up fast. Just today I read an NBCnews.com article with the ominous headline “Extremists inspired by conspiracy theories pose major threat to 2024 elections, U.S. intelligence warns.” Also today: some extremist moron(s) tried to burn the contents of ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington.

Most of these extremists are far-right ‘true believers’ who buy all the conspiracy-mongering about ‘stolen elections,’ believe the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ from Trump, and are convinced 2024 will be a fraud-riddled repeat IF they don’t intervene and, if needed, use violence to ‘Stop the Steal.’

Some of these election conspiracy devotees are now planning and hoping for a second civil war so they can ‘Take back their country.’ W.T.F?! How the hell did we get to such an extreme and dangerous place?

[Note: If you haven’t seen the recent film ‘Civil War,’ I highly recommend it as a sober and terrifying look at what a U.S. civil war would really be like. It’s a grim, frightening scenario that’s a far cry from right-wing fantasies of patriotic glory.]

Domestic ‘stochastic terrorists’ are having a field day

So far, no one will fully admit the depth of the hole we’ve dug for ourselves.

But I see a direct through-line from Donald Trump’s ongoing election lies — ever since 2016 — to Fox News’ endless lies and provocations to the GOP’s despicable embrace of Trump’s election lies to Trump’s newest election lies and distortions… and then from all these interlinked, awful trends straight to violence-inciting rhetoric and far-right planning for violence.

It’s an unfortunate fact that, in the U.S., ‘free speech’ principles overrule almost every other aspect of our society and our lives, to the point that even overt lying and deception are not illegal here. The only place lying is truly illegal is in a court of law, where it’s a felony called ‘perjury.’

But when it comes to our practical day-to-day lives in American society, we citizens are not protected from the ravages and destruction wrought by public lying and intentional deception. Even obvious ‘stochastic terrorism,’ in which there is indirect and non-specific — but ongoing — incitement of violence, is very difficult (if not impossible) to prosecute under our too-lax free speech laws.

That’s where Donald Trump and Fox News enter the picture. Following in the grand (awful) tradition of Rush Limbaugh, Trump and Fox News have both taken public lying and indirect incitement of violence to a whole new level. They’ve perfected the grotesque ‘art’ of heavy-duty public manipulation and know exactly how to go right up to the ‘red line’ of directly inciting racist, ethnic, or election-related violence — without ever crossing it.

They are experts at implying, insinuating, and opining that ‘inferior’ others are ‘un-American’ or destructive to our way of life — but they never directly tell people to go hunt down Black men and murder them, or to bomb the local mosque at the corner of Main and 3rd.

No, they’re too clever for that; they ‘merely’ set the stage, rile up the players, ensure that violence is almost inevitable… and then let the players loose on the nation.

When free speech spins out of control… we all suffer

Thus, Trump, Fox News, and other right-wing ‘news’ outlets blatantly and constantly engage in ‘stochastic terrorism,’ which is not currently illegal. Technically, they are perfectly within their free speech rights to rile people up, incite hatred of other races or ethnic groups, and covertly nudge their followers toward violent action — as long as they don’t overtly advise specific violent actions against specific people or at a specified location.

Under our current free speech regime, all manner of incitement and provocation are legal and allowed. This creates a huge loophole in our society’s ‘defense mechanism’ and empowers these bad actors to act like they’re totally above the law (and usually they are). These untrustworthy manipulators operate in bad faith and abuse our free speech principles to create chaos and wreak havoc with our semi-democracy.

Yes, it really is that bad: they are intent on creating chaos and overturning democracy — and they’re very good at it. And we’re about to find out just how good.

We’re about to find out how effective and extreme their endless provocations have been, and how intensely they have influenced suggestible people and incited them to public violence.

We’ve created the conditions for our own destruction

All these scary ‘coming attractions’ highlight the massive dysfunction(s) embodied in our free speech laws. Plus, it sure doesn’t help when the far-right has effectively ‘owned’ the free speech issue and now uses it as ‘cover’ for their outrageous lies, conspiracy-mongering, hateful speech, and indirect (or even direct) incitement of violence.

Although these seditious tendencies were already strong prior to Trump, he poured high-octane fuel on them and then lit the bonfire. Until Trump burst on the scene and won the 2016 election, no politician or presidential candidate had ever insisted that our entire election system is totally bogus and ‘rigged’ — and no one ever persisted and kept his election lies and conspiracy-mongering going month after month and year after year.

This behavior was truly something new and unheard of in U.S. politics — and it catapulted public manipulation and deception to a much more dangerous and inflammatory level. Then — and even worse — Fox News, far-right media, and the GOP all jumped on the bandwagon, embraced Trump’s deceptions, and started spreading his lies and overt deceptions themselves.

Their horrendous and inexcusable choices to support and spread Trump’s lies and manipulative BS have birthed the greatest internal challenge our society has ever faced, bar none (short of the first, and so far only, American Civil War).

So, in the big picture, what we’ve done in the name of ‘freedom’ and (excessive) adherence to rigid free speech ‘principles,’ is to set up the perfect preconditions for the undermining and destruction of our own society and government.

Free speech has become total license to say almost anything, and be as deceptive, seditious, manipulative, and hate-inciting as possible right up to the limit of our lax existing laws — and there is nothing that we can do about it legally.

We can’t do a damn thing to rein it in or control it.

What about the freedom and security of everyone else?

I’m sorry, but this is a burgeoning social and political disaster — no exaggeration. Our situation is completely insane: One man’s persistent lies, deceptions, delusions, and manipulations should never have been allowed to spread through an entire huge nation, hijack the public dialogue, and incite major upheaval and widespread threats or acts of violence.

Any society that does allow such horrendous speech and actions, and fully protects such individuals while strangling society’s ability to defend itself and continue functioning, probably is not long for this world.

— What about American citizens’ right to a safe and peaceful society?

— What about our right to accurate, truthful information on voting and election results?

— What about the right of citizens of color to not be faced with open oppression, hatred, and perhaps being the next victim of racist violence?

— What about using our laws to protect average, law-abiding Americans instead of protecting deceivers, abusers, and bad actors?

— What about the right of average Americans to hear truthful, well-intentioned, and non-inciting speech on our radios, TV, Internet, and especially in the open public square? Why should WE be constantly subjected to all these horrors and atrocities in the making?

…

As the fine song ‘What about us?’ by P!nk puts it:

“What about us?

What about all the times you said you had the answers?

What about us?

What about all the broken happy ever-afters?

What about us?

What about all the plans that ended in disaster?

What about love? What about trust?

What about us?….

We were willin’, we came when you called.

But man, you fooled us, enough is enough.”

Yes, what about us? What about the rights of the majority who want a multi-cultural and open-minded society, and want it protected and defended? What… the hell… about… US?!

Crunch time: we’re about to face our biggest, final test

Again: Any society that allows such horrendous speech and actions, and protects all such individuals while strangling society’s ability to defend itself and continue functioning, probably is not long for this world.

It’s crunch time, folks. As the feared 2024 election and its aftermath approach, the U.S. is poised to discover these truths in real time and learn some dreadful lessons.

I just hope that when the dust clears, in a few months or years, there will still be a functional United States and a somewhat functional society here.

And here’s another heartfelt concern: I sincerely hope the ‘normies’ and peaceful ones don’t end up as collateral damage in our society’s looming free-speech-intoxicated collapse and possible demise.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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