UPDATE Stop the Next Insurrection - Use Fairness Doctrine to Force Media to Present Provable facts

 

Ex-President trump tried to take over the government of the United States using a violent mob.

He WILL try again.

We will be wise to create obstacles to his attempt.

Here is a preliminary action list of obstacles we can create.  

As background, Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment has limits - it is not absolute.

'Categories of speech that are given lesser or no protection by the First Amendment (and therefore may be restricted) include obscenity, fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial speech such as advertising.' 

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions]

1. REDUCE MEDIA LIES WITH FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

Stop the Next Insurrection - Use Fairness Doctrine to Force Media to Present Provable facts 

The United States has controlled lies and seditious propaganda using the Fairness Doctrine that ended in 1987. We recognized the role inflammatory propaganda played in the rise of totalitarian governments in Europe; we chose to limit such activities.

'The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable, and balanced.' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine] 

NOTE ABOUT FAIRNESS DOCTRINE 

Some commentators focus on the equal time component but I prefer to focus on the need to present facts with a penalty of losing access to public media if proven to present lies.

The FCC could take away media rights to publish or broadcast if found guilty of abusing the First Amendment by presenting misinformation as fact. 

IN ADDITION, the fairness doctrine can be extended to social media. The FCC can suspend a company’s access to the internet if found guilty of First Amendment abuse. Even with encryption and the dark web, the FCC can still reduce the volume of abusive content. 

2. CREATE LAW CRIMINALIZING DOMESTIC TERRORISM

There is no law against domestic terrorism in the United States. [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/there-no-law-covers-domestic-terrorism-what-would-one-look-n1040386]

Law enforcement uses lesser infractions to charge insurrectionists. We should create a federal law to criminalize domestic terrorism.

3. STOP PUBLICIZING BLATANT LIARS

Some officials who repeat false and unprotected statements receive media exposure; that exposure serves to enforce a false narrative. As a civic duty, media should limit coverage of proven liars and inciters like M. T. Greene.

4. INFILTRATE AND DESTABILIZE HATE GROUPS

Ex-President trump may well rely on organized hate groups as foot soldiers in his next insurrection. We must interfere with their activities that may lead to violence. There are hundreds of established hate groups that pose a danger to the peace and stability of the United States. 

List- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_designated_by_the_Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_as_hate_groups]

Background [

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/01/962973774/the-number-of-hate-groups-declined-last-year-but-hate-did-not]

5. REMOVE RACIST AND FAR RIGHT ADHERENTS FROM OFFICIAL POSITIONS.

Police and armed forces in the United States have many far right and racist adherents as members. 

Remove them. [https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law]

6. LIMIT FAR RIGHT TAKEOVER OF STATE REPUBLICAN PARTIES

White supremacists and conspiracy theorists are actively infiltrating state and local GOP organizations. They want to remove moderate members and install their supporters as local elected officials. 

Ex-President trump supports this practice; some of the compromised governments may support the next insurrection.

[https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-trials-washington-impeachments-c83fe958e624c1ead5301407eb8a0347]

7. CREATE REAL EQUALITY

Inequalities and differing treatments of race, income, wealth, gender and class have increased. Such inequalities are the driving force behind the far right movement. It is not JUST the poor white malcontents - there are real issues. 

Everybody knows this; now is the time to fix it. The future of the American experiment is at risk.

[https://inequality.stanford.edu/publications/20-facts-about-us-inequality-everyone-should-know]

Are We Evil ?

That's an overly broad questions so I'll narrow it down a bit.

Let's try this: Does the Federal Government of the United States adopt policies with evil effects?

Well that question requires a definition of what are evil effects. After all, how can we sort out all the policies with real world effects into evil effects and good effects?

And, since the USA probably has thousands of individual policies, some of them may very well have evil effects - policies that actively harm people.

And, of course, some policies that are good for the country may harm individual people. All we can ask is that the policy designer has considered the trade offs before implementing the policy.

We need a sorting mechanism to separate any policies with evil effects from the policies with good effects. 

Luckily we can draw on the experience at Nuremburg trials of Nazi's after WW II. 

Captain G. M. Gilbert, US Army psychologist was assigned to watching the Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg Trails. 

"In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil, and now I think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."

[https://sluggerotoole.com/2018/06/19/evil-i-think-is-the-absence-of-empathy/]

If he is right, then it is likely that policies created with no concern for the effects of the policy on Americans or other people can be considered evil.

I think we prefer that United States governmental polices are designed with empathy for the people affected by the policy.

VIOLENCE IS TREASON in the USA

 Let us be clear - we live in a Democracy wherein the government derives its powers from the consent of the governed.

 

If you choose violence to prevent that, you are a traitor committing treason.

 

The universal punishment for treason is death.

 

Those who commit violence, encourage violence, justify violence or incite violence are traitors.