Lying protected by Freedom of Speech?

I cant count all the times I've seen the spewing of blatent lies being justified as being protected by Freedom of Speech.

Now I'm deeply libertarian minded, and can see the slippery slope where this could lead, but there has to be a place to draw the line?

An easy problem to identify is that corporations (and therefore banks) get basically the same rights as actual human beings, yet yield more power. It seems plain to me that they shouldn't be allowed to lie to promote their agendas.

The key libertarian principle is that you can do whatever you want with your property (including yourself) as long as it doesn't harm others (property). The same should be said of if you tell a lie and people get hurt. Like they say, if you scream fire in a crowded theater, and people get hurt, then you're responsible.

And we do see elements of this in the system. If a corporation lies and someone gets hurt they can be sued. But as long as noone gets hurt then they can say whatever lies they want? But in reality they lie all the time, and people get hurt, and they get away with it.

Now we could have problems if every (human) person had to pay a fine everytime they lied (technically you do if you lie to "The Law"). For how many more decades should multinational corporations be given the same rights as a "person". I say 150 years is far too long.

And what about public office? When you and your cohorts have power over millions of lives should you be able to lie on TV, etc, regularly? You could argue that it would take a tiny gestapo to monitor all of the politicians, which poses new problems, but I argue that we already have a gigantic and still growing gestapo overlording the majority of the populace.

It seems there has to be limits to how far this idea of lying being protected by Freedom of Speech. Especially when this idea is constantly perverted to enable the ongoing corruption that permeates all throughout.

How to proceed with such is problematic, but we could at least start by honoring the idea that if your lies hurt people you should pay, and then identify unresolved hurtful lies perpetrated by politicians and corporations of times past. We surely have a massive amount of juctice that hasn't been served. And people shouldnt just be demoted, smeared, or fired, they should face personal criminal charges and fines. If the 51% shareholder CEO is responsible for x amount of damage enough that he faces prison time then his company shares get distributed amongst the employees and then they might ensure they have decent humans running the company that they represent.

Throw the book at them like so many little tiny single human being citizens face all the time. Let the executives and politicians snitch each other out, like so many millions have to do every year to avoid jail for petty things like drugs. The lies of these politicians, banksters, and corporations hurt everyone, vastly unlike people who do things to 'hurt' themselves, get caught, and then face prison or to become liars to be able to infiltrate and lock others up in the system for petty 'crimes'.

Maybe we wouldn't even need to make lying in general illegal for people like politicians, if only they knew they'd face true justice when their lies do hurt people. Like I always say, if a cleptomaniac walks into a store that has no cameras, one obviously hungover clerk behind the register tied up with customers, and he already knows the clerk personally and knows the clerk will let him steal, when he gets to the back of the store what is he going to do?

Therefore I posit that merely applying the law against existing harmful lies could be a key method to promote heavily for cleaning the system up for good. Smart theives wont steal when there's a camera and they know they'll face justice, and stupid theives eventually get caught and punished. If these people knew they'll have hell to pay they'll just fade away.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


Although I disagree with your name, I agree with the OP..

In order to stop this lying, it needs to be stopped from the top, hence the leaders..

Today leaders can twist and turn, make lies seem like truth, and yet get away with it.. Politics they call it, the art of debating.. The art of confusion.. blablabla

Leaders shouldn't just be told to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, but also should be told that if they don't tell the truth, they will be punished for it..

It is a crime to lie, at a level that high..

See if leaders lie, then surely the corporation will lie.. If the government says why you do that, they will say, why you do that..

The top is the problem.. That needs to be fixed first..

I've always wondered how the world would change if everyone had a lie detector placed above their head.

I'd rather someone plead the fifth amendment than lie.

reply to post by oozyism


Very good points you both!

The mini gestapo already exists: they go by the title FBI. All the time the FBI spends doing sneak and peak break-ins of citizens houses spying on millions of people they could have the federal "mall" cleaned up in weeks.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


Well, I would like to say that if lying was ever outlawed, it WOULD take care of the problem with politicians.

They would never be able to speak.