Free speech damage to American democracy and society

Jackson’s 1945 concurrence is still cited today in court decisions asserting that that under First Amendment law, government cannot impose “guardianship of the public mind”. That free speech principle coexists with laws that allow government regulation of certain kinds of speech, primarily fraud and false advertising, defamation (libel and slander), child porn, incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, fighting words and some crime-related speech. The line between speech that can be regulated and that which can’t is generally fairly clear. In Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974), the supreme court commented that “Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea,” while distinguishing ideas from false statements of fact. Some false fact assertions can be regulated subject to constitutional limits.

Honest & dishonest speech

Legal speech includes both honest and dishonest speech. A way to define honest speech in the context of politics, democracy and the rule of law is to say it’s good faith speech intended to inform or persuade on the basis of facts, true truths and sound reasoning, with no conscious intent to deceive or irrationally emotionally manipulate, e.g., by fomenting unwarranted emotions or mindsets such as fear, anger, hate, distrust, bigotry, racism, ect.

For better or worse, that vision of honest speech is unavoidably and blindingly complex. For example, there is no highly accurate way to tell if mistakes in a speech or message are honest or lies intended to deceive or emotionally manipulate. Assessing intent in political speech requires either knowledge the speech at least appears to be honest, or fact and/or reputation checking.

For chronic liars, available evidence can make it rational to distrust and disbelieve everything the liar asserts. For example, Trump has a proven track record of constant lying. Analysis of 1,000 assertions found that 75% of assertions were mostly false, false, or pants on fire. The evidence is clear that it is not always honest mistakes. Being a bullshitter (arguably worse than being a just liar) and a chronic liar, falsehoods dominate Trump’s free speech. Obviously, disbelieving bullshitters and chronic liars in politics is rational. So is seeing them as morally rotted. That may be rational, but humans being rational isn’t often the case with politics.

With most Trump supporters, partisan identity, partisanship and other human factors often override inconvenient facts, truths and sound reasoning.

The damage from demagoguery & propaganda

“VOTER FRAUD IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY, IT IS A FACT!!!” — Trump, Dec. 24, 2020

Tens of millions of Americans continue to believe divisive but repeatedly debunked Trump lies, e.g., the 2020 election was stolen, Trump’s 1/6 insurrectionists were patriots and political prisoners (“It was a beautiful day of love …. mostly peaceful”), Biden, Harris and Democrats are socialist/communist radicals, COVID will just disappear like the flu, open borders are driving a massive crime wave, and other debunked whoppers. Apparently, those debunked whoppers are not debunked in the minds of most Trump supporters.

Trump and MAGA’s pervasive, bad‑faith use of dishonest demagogic speech has grievously damaged American democracy and governance. It has torn American society apart, and destroyed lives and families. By relentlessly promoting his lies and authoritarianism, Trump has convinced about one‑third of Americans and about two‑thirds of Republicans that US elections are rigged and dictatorship is a reasonable option. As intended, that erodes confidence in self‑government and democracy itself. Trump’s and MAGA elites’ dishonest speech drives support for deceived or manipulated election deniers, restrictive voting laws, and even Trump’s 1/6 coup attempt. This combination of persistent dishonest speech that has normalized corruption and authoritarianism for tens of millions of Americans arguably constitutes an existential threat to democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and honest, transparent governance. (link 1, link 2, link 3)

MAGA’s malicious, demagoguery also damages civil society and commerce. It floods the zone with kleptocratic authoritarian lies, slanders, falsehoods and crackpot conspiracy theories. Rational policy and business decisions become hard to impossible. Immigration and the “open borders crime wave” fantasy normalizes cruel, unwarranted discrimination and social conflict. It is clear that persistent dishonest authoritarian Trump and MAGA speech undermines social trust, while imposing large aggregate costs on the global and US economy. (link 4, link 5, link 6)

Q1: Is the damage to American democracy, rule of law and civil liberties, from from dishonest Trump and MAGA propagandist speech not serious (or even not existent), or if it is serious, is it morally justified?

Q2: Is the honest vs dishonest speech conflict mainly between good and evil, truth and lies/bullshit, democracy and authoritarianism, or something else?