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"It's Just Words..." [1]
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Date: 2022-10-12
Sometimes you can tell a book by its cover...
Today, right-wing provocateur Alex Jones was taken to the cleaners. A jury held him accountable for the immeasurable harm his rhetoric did to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims. The jury ordered him to pay about 965 million dollars in damages.
Countless right-wingers came to his defense. Among them was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted No matter what you think of Alex Jones all he did was speak words. He was not the one who pulled the trigger. Were his words wrong and did he apologize? Yes. That’s what freedom of speech is. Freedom to speak words. Political persecution must end.
Simplistic? You bet. It’s also cringeworthy for someone who postures as religious. One would expect someone taking such a public religious posture would be a little more Bible literate. But as we’ve seen countless times over, some of the most religious people behave as if they’ve never cracked open the Bible. (I’ll get to that shortly.)
For as long as anyone can remember parents have tried to keep their kids from getting into fights by hammering them with, “Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you.”
Our parents wouldn’t have lied to us about this, would they? The most respectful answer is not intentionally. The part with the rocks and sticks is true.
The other is crap. Words can hurt. Words do hurt. They can hurt worse than physical injuries and the pain can last a lifetime.
Although words have enormous power to hurt, and to heal if they’re employed wisely. Words are so powerful that the Bible depicts God as having created everything with speech. The universe exists because of words. The Hebrew word for word (דבר - davar) is the same word for thing or object. It’s no coincidence that they’re the same word. God created everything with words. God spoke? Boom! Existence.
Words have substance. And because they can never be ‘taken back,’ the harm they do can last forever. So much for Rep. Greene’s Bible Illiteracy. That is something we the people can live with.
But her ignorance of the First Amendment itself is something else.
Is it possible she never heard of obscenity? Fighting words? Child pornography? Perjury? Blackmail? Incitement to imminent lawless action? (Hello… Is Donald home?) True threats? Solicitation to commit crimes? (Are you sure Donald is not home? Okay…) Who knows.
But the relevant unprotected speech is defamation. Libel. Slander. I’ll bet the farm she’d learn what that is if she was accused of faking the death of one of her children.
And then she would sue.
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