How stupid is CBC and its Liberal overseers?

https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies



David Raymond Amos  ‏ @DavidRayAmos

Replying to @DavidRayAmos @Kathryn98967631 and 49 others

Methinks I should ask the obvious question How stupid is CBC and its Liberal overseers? Everybody knows that Trump's many minions know about this article already N'esy Pas?

http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/08/how-stupid-is-cbc-and-its-liberal.html

 #nbpoli #cdnpoli #TrudeauMustGo

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/alex-jones-1.4776763

Alex Jones deals in vicious stupidity. It's not free speech — it's incitement: Neil Macdonald

Jones's followers are effectively guns, loaded by their conspiracy theorist hero

Neil Macdonald · CBC News · Posted: Aug 08, 2018 4:00 AM ET

Free speech has never been absolute, even in America. Alex Jones's horrifying incitement goes too far. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

2187 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.

 
"POOF"
Jason Martin

I see the conspiracy theory nutters are out defending their master this morning. Coffee and Prozac anyone?

Steven Read

@Steven Read
Entire careers have highlighted the hypocrisy on both sides of the political spectrum but most of their content comes from the right.

David Amos

@Steven Read Is CBC left or right? How about CTV and Global?

 
Don King

For once, I totally agree with Neil. This guy is the embodiment of everything wrong with America today. I wonder if he’s any relation to Jim Jones.

Sandy Gillis

@Marilyn Chambers
Speaking about against wars is great.

Telling vicious lies about people, especially people who have already suffered terrible loss, is downright evil.

So yes, despite doing one good thing, he's still a bad guy. Weird how that works, huh?

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David Amos

@Don King "In a sense, Trump and Jones are peas in the same pod of ugly-crazy. Both were early to recognize the vicious stupidity out there, and have used it to enrich and elevate themselves."

Methinks I should ask the obvious question How stupid is CBC and its Liberal overseers? Everybody knows that Trump's many minions know about this article already N'esy Pas?

Roch Comeau

@David Amos

Your question (or the point you are trying to make) is not so obvious. Can you be a bit clearer? What does it matter if Trumps minions knew abou t this story and how exactly did they know?

David Amos

@Roch Comeau Methinks you should check my Twitter account N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "So yes, despite doing one good thing, he's still a bad guy. Weird how that works, huh?"

Methinks left wingnuts only believe in free speech when they slander and libel people N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "Weird how that works, huh?"

Methinks you should know. As you are well aware CBC proves to many people on a daily basis the free speech is a myth in this domain which funded by all our tax dollars not just the people who voted for the liberals N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Methinks its rather obvious why CBC continues to block my replies to you N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Blah blah blah

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "Blah blah blah"

Methinks I should quote you N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Um, fill your boots? Not sure why, but do whatever you like.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis I have explained this to you before but your friends in CBC always blocked my replies. Methinks should have at least remembered to Google your name and mine if you were remotely ethical N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
I don't have any friends at the CBC Dave, and I've had several replies to you blocked as well. There's no conspiracy afoot to silence you.

Also, I have no interest in Googling you, that would just be enabling your silly obsession with people looking you up on the internet.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis How do you explain my being falsely imprisoned twice or my lawsuit that you have admitted knowing about?

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David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Methinks anyone can checkout another CBC comment section without bothering to Google your name or mine N'esy Pas?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fundy-royal-riding-profile-1.3274276

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David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "I don't have any friends at the CBC "

Yea Right Methinks the comment CBC just blocked was the proof of the malicious pudding N'esy Pas Minister Joly?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
I don't know why you've been incarcerated David, nor do I care. You said you were going to sue me for being mean to you, so of course I know you said it.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Why play dumb now? Methinks everybody knows that you and your CBC pals know I am talking about the one I filed in 2015 N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Yet again, for the umpteenth time David. My name is Sandy Gillis. I am not, however, the person of the same name you apparently have a prior history with.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Everybody knows my poor History with YOU is within the CBC section and in emails to CBC et al. Do tell if I were Harper or Trudeau would you dare to treat them in the same fashion within the Crown's domain? I am I any lesser man than them just because I did not get elected? Methinks the lawyers who were duly informed should NOT N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@David Amos I am surprised that CBC published that reply after blocking 5 above it in this thread alone . Methinks for obvious reasons I will run with warts and all N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
I don't care whether you're a failed politician or not David. If you say ridiculous things, I'm going to laugh at you. You say a lot of ridiculous things here, and you're quite laughable.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Speaking of "quite laughable" you are pretty funny yourself

"I have no interest in Googling you, that would just be enabling your silly obsession with people looking you up on the interneT"

Methinks most folks could see that was a rather desperate attempt to get them to not Google YOUR name and mine. You created your own mystery N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "You say a lot of ridiculous things here, and you're quite laughable"

Do tell how is public corruption and murder even remotely funny?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Okay, how's this:

Hey everyone! Feel free to go Google my name and David's!

Again, I simply don't care what you wrote about me. It's the internet, write whatever you want.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis I did way more than that

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
How super for you. I don't care.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Methinks you should never forget that you challenged me to do so and CBC published it N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
As I said before, blah blah blah

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Methinks we all know how witty you are that you must resort to quoting yourself when at a loss for words N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Need I say that I am honoured by the fact that Trolls hate me?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Yup, you should probably sue me for that David.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Nope I sue CBC

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
I bet their lawyers get a good laugh over it too.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis If you want their phone numbers Google my name and Federal Court

Dave Davidson

@David Amos

Dude.

You need help.

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
For what possible reason would I want their phone numbers??

 
Marie Price

No rights are absolute including freedom of speech disguised as hate, racism, and fake news.

Matt Bryson

@Marie Price
And yet the ACLU fights to protect the rights of the KKK to march. I guess freedom of speech only counts if it is for ideas we already agree with.

Ron Paul

@Casey Leigh Who has Alex Jones ever gotten killled? Meanwhile CNN pushed the false babies in incubators story that started the first Iraq war or the weapons of mass destruction that started the second Iraq war. And how many millions of people died as a result of those wars?

David Amos

@Ron Paul Methinks CBC and CNN are two peas in a pod N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Matt Bryson "I guess freedom of speech only counts if it is for ideas we already agree with."

Methinks that appears to be opinion of CBC which is overseen by our government N'esy Pas?

Wanda White

@David Amos - the CBC is not even CLOSE to the stupidity of CNN, so please do not insult our national broadcaster that way! It may not be perfect, but it is CERTAINLY a hell of a lot better than CNN's CRAP

David Amos

@Wanda White "so please do not insult our national broadcaster that way!"

Methinks you should explain to me why our national broadcaster ignored its non partisan mandate and failed to report that I was on the ballot in five elections until they were a matter of history N'esy Pas?

 

Joe Green

Furthermore, if Alex Jones lived in Canada, he would be charged and convicted of hate crimes perpetrated against an identifiable minority, again a criminal offence under the Criminal Code.

The Courts would bury this Big Lie peddlar so deep in the sand, he would need a pipeline to see the Sunshine.

Kham Hammerschmam

@Rick March

Why does the party of personal responsibility never take any?

Kham Hammerschmam

@Rick March

For those of you claiming that their "free speech" is being violated, do you think it's acceptable to falsely accuse someone of a crime? Is that protected speech? How about yelling "fire" in a crowded shopping centre?

Ron Paul

@Joe Green That's because we live in a country with terrible laws. Alex lives in the only country in the world that truely has freedom of speech. But lets all hope we get to the point of England, where you can be jailed for making your dog do a trick on youtube.

Ron Paul

@Rick March It's amazing someone would type that idea out thinking that it's actually a good thing. Can't for the life of me understand why the left is so eager to give up all it's freedoms to the government, especially considering half the time it's a government they despise.

Ron Paul

@Sandy Gillis So I assume you think CNN should be taken off the air immediately.

David Amos

@Kham Hammerschmam What about the things you said about me published by CBC Methinks that is libel N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Kham Hammerschmam "Why does the party of personal responsibility never take any?"

Methinks you need a real name before you can be held responsible for your words N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Ron Paul "So I assume you think CNN should be taken off the air immediately."

Methinks there is no need hardly anyone watches CNN anymore and if Harper 2.0 wins the next mandate he likely cut CBC's funding bigtime N'esy Pas?

Kham Hammerschmam

@David Amos

On the other hand, you wrote to the FBI, Chris Christie, and Nigel Farage, making false claims about me...

Kham Hammerschmam

@David Amos

Where's the libel? I do hope you get help. That's true.

David Amos

@Kham Hammerschmam Methinks everybody knows who and I am and nobody knows you are Hence the libel rests on CBC shoulders so I must sue the Crown again N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Kham Hammerschmam "On the other hand, you wrote to the FBI, Chris Christie, and Nigel Farage, making false claims about me..."

Nope anyone can review my Twitter account I provided the link to the CBC article in which you were spouting off about them under a false name Methinks that is against the rules of CBC N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "Anyone who tells lies to hurt other people is committing a crime and deserves to be punished. "

Hmmmm

David Amos

@Kham Hammerschmam "There are also issues of slander and libel, transgressions that aren't covered by "free speech." My point is that there are always limits to freedom of speech, as many have already pointed out here. "

Methinks your claim that Alex Jones threatened violence against Mueller. and your comment about the FBI and I must have made somebody pay attention by now N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Eddie Brock Methinks if you truly seek help to understand some of what Hammerschmam knows about how irrelevant Alex Jones truly is all you have to do is just Google two names David Amos Robert Mueller sometime N'esy Pas?

Kham Hammerschmam

@David Amos

I really have no idea what you're talking about.

Again, I hope you get the help you need and all the best.

 
Jarrod Yeo

This should not be a partisan issue. Alex Jones criminally harrassess and endangers the families of murdered school children. Why are we even talking about freed speech?

Jason Tremblay (JasonDiggy)

@Jarrod Yeo

Because it shows how low rightists will go to push their hate-filled agenda.

David Amos

@Jason Tremblay (JasonDiggy) Methinks all the left wingnuts are having quite a hay day today N'esy Pas?

Steven Arsenault

@Jason Tremblay (JasonDiggy)

We should distinguish right between far right.

Henry Smith

@Steven Arsenault
When you are a rabid ideologue you can't distinguish.

David Amos

@Steven Arsenault I agree because I lean to the right on many issues. However I always run as Independent because like the majority of Canadians I find the Harperites contemptible just like parliament did in 2011. Harper won his only majority mandate that year merely because folks had enough of the nonsense and an Orange wave swamped the Bloc and the Iggy's many minions too while Harper held on the his right wing fan base. In 2015 Trudeau became the PM not because he offered great selfies but because Harper and Mulcair lost a lot of their fans and folks went to the middle ground (remember Trudeau's support of Bill C51?). Methinks next year's election is gonna be interesting to say the least N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Henry Smith "When you are a rabid ideologue you can't distinguish."

I concur

 
John Brown

"Free speech" doesn't mean 'any speech', and this'd be why. The fact that this particularly twisted and corrosive nimrod actually has a following proves how easily stupid people can be influenced, and from what's been happening lately you'd almost think as a species we're beginning to de-evolve.

Sandy Gillis

@Matt Bryson
Ignorance is not a defense, and willful ignorance should be a crime in itself.

Unless Jones can produce evidence to back up his claims, he's committing a crime, whether he believes his filth or not.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis "Ignorance is not a defense, and willful ignorance should be a crime in itself. "

Methinks you should apply those rules to yourself first N'esy Pas?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Haven't you gotten around to suing me for being mean to you like you said you were going to yet?

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Have you talked to your friends lately?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Sure, I went over to my buddy's place to play some cards last weekend, what's it to you?

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Did he mention a certain lawyer's name?

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Nope, the talk was mostly about movies, summer vacations, etc. As I've tried to tell you many times, I'm not the guy who picked on you as a kid, or whatever the reason was you seem fixated on me. The are over 35 million Canadians, and several of them are named Sandy Gillis. I am only one of them, not all.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Your friends did say you would be back in September

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
It's August Davey, check your calendar.

David Amos

@Sandy Gillis Whats your point? I was talking to your friends about you

Sandy Gillis

@David Amos
Haha okay there Davey, whatever you say.

 

Bryan Atkinson

In the child custody portion of Alex Jones' divorce, he claimed to be an entertainer. Just like Sean Hannity claimed to be a talk show host not a journalist.

These guys all have the same thing in common, when it comes time for them to take responsibility for the harm they do, they run for the hills.

Even Trump has been trying to incite violence against media who criticize him.

Travis Ladwin

@Bryan Atkinson

Orwellian Fascism is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

David Amos

@Travis Ladwin Welcome to the Circus

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David Amos
@Bryan Atkinson Methinks this nonsense in CBC is just that It must be slow news day that they report this stuff instead of other far more important issues N'esy Pas?

In my humble opinion none of this any of our business or that of CBC but if it is not careful it could get sued for libel. Then it will become all our business because it is our Crown Corp

Jones and Trump are Yankees dealing with Yankee companies.

If Facebook and YouTube etc don't wish to do business with Jones so be it. It is not a Free Speech issue. If he has done something wrong the Yankees can sue or prosecute him.

The same rules hold for Trump Correct?

 Mark Sobkow

Jones is a disgrace to humanity, like his protege, Trump. Both encourage the basest and lowest forms of "intelligence" in humanity, and decry critical thought.

I much prefer Canada's hate speech laws to the unmitigated nonsense that gets tolerated in the US. There have to be limits, and when your speeches cause death-threats to innocents, you've gone WAY over the line and belong in jail yourself.

Jim Palmer

@Mark Sobkow

"Both encourage the basest and lowest forms of 'intelligence' in humanity, and decry critical thought".

Keeping 'society' ignorant enables control over them by the Trumps of the World.
(Thus Donnie's "love for the uneducated").
Sad.

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David Amos

@Mark Sobkow Tut Tut Tut

David Amos

@Jim Palmer Ditto 4 U 2

 

John Sollows

This is an important debate. Like Nil, I see the problem and don't see the solution.

Tells me we ALL need to try to get as informed as possible, and employ our faculties of conscience and critical thinking.

Roch Comeau

@Travis Ladwin Every news source has some sort of bias. There are however, outliers that are not even on the scale of biased one way or another, but don’t even try to get it even remotely close. Their goal is to get you to turn off your critical thinking and eat their crap whole. Once you fall under their spell, you simply vilify the other side without considering the other side’s opinion. Putting legitimate, if somewhat biased news organisations on the same tablw for comparison is flawed because the extremes are not there to inform, they are there to indoctrinate. More than a few victims here on these boards today. And and distressing.

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David Amos

@John Sollows "This is an important debate. Like Nil, I see the problem and don't see the solution."

Methinks as we watch the circus south of the 29th most of us know that free speech is a myth in Canada particularly in light of the fact that CBC has already blocked several of my comments and no doubt many others as we attempt to debate the left wingnuts it supports for political reasons N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Roch Comeau "Every news source has some sort of bias."

Methinks the same things can be said of CBC N'esy Pas?

For instance did I run in 5 elections or did I not? ( Check the comment section)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fundy-royal-riding-profile-1.3274276

Doug James

@John Sollows
I don't like Jones but would never censor him. I have watched many a report and determined that he is too militant for my liking. Still, he reports on things the MSM will never touch and if you think the MSM only tells the truth then you are living in the 1050s. If he can be censored then all alternative media can be censored and gatekeepers installed to tell us what is fake news. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have all started showing only what they consider the truth. "You can't lock up an idea" Tommy Douglas

Doug James

@Charles van Duren
If you only watch TV...yes, one narrative.

Doug James

@Roch Comeau
Galileo was fringe, as was Einstein. The fringe, frontier, edge, or whatever you want to call it, is where all the new stuff comes from...where the discoveries are made. Want to give that up?

David Amos

@Doug James Methinks You should know. I have only seen you in YouTube with an infamous blogger announcing that you are running for public office but whereas you worked for CBC and CNN etc you must understand just how important social media has become and that Trump and Jones have played their parts in promoting the circus N'esy Pas?

 
Walter Vrbetic

So in a previous lawsuit Jones claimed - swore under oath - that his show wasn't news, that it was entertainment.... so which is it? Can't have it both ways... it's one thing when it's convenient, and another when those circumstances are convenient!

Jason Tremblay (JasonDiggy)

@Walter Vrbetic

The only things rightists have are spin and outright fabrication.

David Amos

@Jason Tremblay (JasonDiggy) Methinks you are being a little redundant N'esy Pas?

 
John Dunn

The sad part is that about 40% of Americans apparently buy his garbage. That is the frightening part. Sort of like those who follow Ezra here.

David Amos

@John Dunn Methinks Ezzy Baby will be overjoyed to be referred to within CBC's domain N'esy Pas?

Alex Jones deals in vicious stupidity. It's not free speech — it's incitement: Neil Macdonald

Jones's followers are effectively guns, loaded by their conspiracy theorist hero

Neil Macdonald · CBC News · Posted: Aug 08, 2018 4:00 AM ET

Free speech has never been absolute, even in America. Alex Jones's horrifying incitement goes too far. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Free-speechers – a group of which I am an enthusiastic, gold-card-carrying member – argue that the best response to offensive speech is more speech, rather than the dead hand of the state.

It's a sound axiom, given the primordial compulsion of human beings to suppress, or at least control, the expression of others, particularly in the febrile, ultrasensitive times we are living at the moment.

Imagine the result if governments were to indulge every demand for protection against offence or insult from every group claiming victimhood? We would soon need a ministry of hate speech, with 24-hour call centres to advise on permissible expression.

That said, the doctrine of free speech, so beautifully entrenched in America's basic law, is flawed; it does not take into account the existence in the population of a vicious stupidity more profound and entrenched than any reasonable person could have guessed. And Lucy Richards is the very personification of it.

Richards stalked and criminally threatened the family of a murdered six-year-old. (Paula McMahon/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Richards is a 58-year-old woman who should by now be on supervised release from prison, somewhere in Florida. She was, effectively, weaponized by a vile far-right reptile named Alex Jones, whose many fans include U.S. President Donald Trump. Primed and aimed by Jones, she stalked and criminally threatened the family of a murdered six-year-old.

Jones makes his living preaching conspiracy theories to America's vein of vicious stupidity. Among his more successful crusades was the idea that Hillary Clinton was connected to a child sex ring operating out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria (which prompted a gunman to show up at the pizzeria and open fire), and that the massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a "false-flag" operation orchestrated by liberal puppets buried in the machinery of government, staged in order to build support for gun control and take assault rifles away from freedom-loving American patriots.

Harassment of Sandy Hook families

According to Jones, the school shooting was a hoax, and the corpses of the children were in fact child actors playing roles. The families of the murdered children, according to Jones, were complicit in this liberal anti-gun plot, and he has helpfully published their personal details, according to an affidavit since filed by one of the families. Millions of visitors to Jones's Infowars website have gobbled up this unspeakable lie, and some have made it their mission to track down and harass the families.
Lucy Richards was one of them.

Richards was sent to prison last summer after pleading guilty to making death threats against the family of Noah Pozner, a six-year-old cut down by mass murderer Adam Lanza's bullets at Sandy Hook. The judge who sentenced her told her the family's sad reality was the only reality, and that she was not entitled to her "alternative facts," a phrase famously invented by Trump shill Kellyanne​ Conway to defend her boss's presidential lies.

But Richards was only one of many in Jones's posse of gullible idiots. Together, they have hounded the Pozner family relentlessly, tracking them down every time they relocate to escape the harassment. The family now reportedly lives in a high-security community hundreds of kilometres from the cemetery where their little boy is buried. They no longer visit his grave, for fear of attracting more nasty attention.

• Alex Jones faces lawsuits after calling Sandy Hook shooting a hoax
• Alex Jones' Infowars content removed from Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify

It is impossible to imagine losing a child in a school shooting, let alone the surreal targeting by Jones's fanatical fans.

But it has all been allowed in the name of free speech. Jones, like other demagogues, has wrapped himself in the First Amendment, even titling his production company Free Speech Systems LLC.

And for years, despite pleas from the families of the dead children, social media organizations like Facebook, Apple, YouTube, Spotify and Twitter have enabled Jones, carrying his online rants, or providing links to them.

Effectively, Jones's followers are guns, loaded by their conspiracy theorist hero and stocked by some of the biggest digital companies in America, all for profit.

That may now be coming to an end. But then again, maybe not.

Nine of the Sandy Hook families have filed separate defamation lawsuits against Jones, in tandem with a fellow named Marcel Fontaine, who was wrongly identified by Jones as the gunman in the Parkland, Fla. school shooting last February.

Alex Jones ✔ @RealAlexJones

Pro-First Amendment patriots are rallying behind #Infowars and #AlexJones after authoritarian tech titans #Facebook, #YouTube, and #Apple banned us from their platforms on the same day in a coordinated communist-style crackdown - https://www.infowars.com/patriots-rally-behind-infowars-amid-techs-total-communist-censorship/ … #1a #Censorship #USA

3:17 PM - Aug 6, 2018

• 4,327
• 3,383 people are talking about this

Together, they have shamed Jones's social media platforms into removing his filth. For now. (Social media platforms, unlike the various level of American government, are not bound by the First Amendment, and can remove or censor whatever they like).

But Jones, the self-styled free speech warrior, is invoking the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a law that protects people from being silenced by costly litigation. He is actually demanding $100,000 in costs from the Pozner family, whom he casts as "public figures" who aren't entitled to the privacy normal citizens enjoy.

Heaven knows, he may actually win. And there are actually free-speech advocates who would cheer that.

I understand their arguments, and agree with many of them, at least in principle. I don't trust the government to decide which speech is acceptable and which speech offends.

But it's hard to imagine that the framers of the First Amendment could have imagined the confluence of a creep like Alex Jones with the reach and power of the internet in the age of Donald Trump, who once appeared on Jones's show.

"Your reputation is amazing," the future president told Jones. "I will not let you down."

Since then, Jones has claimed he and Trump have chatted often. Lately, he's been obliging Trump by telling his audience that special counsel Robert Mueller, the man investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a child rapist in league with pedophiles.

The birther president

In a sense, Trump and Jones are peas in the same pod of ugly-crazy. Both were early to recognize the vicious stupidity out there, and have used it to enrich and elevate themselves.

Trump, for years, peddled the lie that Barack Obama was foreign-born and was therefore an illegitimate president. He tells his rallies that undocumented immigrants, rapists and murderers "infest" America. Jones takes credit for Trump's applause line about the media being enemies of the people, with its obvious undertone of incitement.

And don't kid yourself: some of the Trump fans at those rallies are Alex-Jones-embracing conspiracy nuts. Just look at all the "We are Q" signs they brandish.

I am no jurist; I cannot suggest legal fixes that would protect the innocent victims of weaponized lies and vicious stupidity. Yes, we are living in an age of victimhood, but also of emboldened evil, and the justice system must recognize that. (And not just in the U.S.: Jones's second-biggest audience is right here in Canada).

Free speech has never been absolute, even in America. Alex Jones's horrifying incitement goes too far, even for the speech libertarian in me.

And if the Sandy Hook families lose in court on grounds of free speech, it will not only be unjust, it will be frightening.

This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.

About the Author

 

Neil Macdonald

Opinion Columnist

Neil Macdonald is an opinion columnist for CBC News, based in Ottawa. Prior to that he was the CBC's Washington correspondent for 12 years, and before that he spent five years reporting from the Middle East. He also had a previous career in newspapers, and speaks English and French fluently, and some Arabic.