JessFR
Bluelight Crew
Apparently, the parent of a Sandy Hook victim won bigtime in court for defamation.![]()
Conspiracy theorist ordered to pay $450,000 to victim’s father for claiming Sandy Hook shooting was fake
A conspiracy theorist who claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre did not happen, has been ordered to pay $450,000 (£351,000) to the father of one of the victims. Leonard Pozner, whose six-year-old son Noah was one of 26 killed in the massacre, was awarded the money by a jury in Wisconsin after...news.google.com
On the one hand, free speech. On the other hand, this conspiracy theory undoubtedly caused a lot of people a lot of pain.
Maybe it’s costly speech?
it’s interesting to see how people are being brought to account for things they say.
The internet has allowed people to disregard social norms and be e-brave. It’ll be fascinating to see how society and the courts deal with situations like this one.
The way I see it, the line here is simple (and this case is on the right side of it).
You can say whatever stupid and horrible shit you like, so long as you speak in general terms. You can promote conspiracy theories about specific events. Where it crosses the line is when it becomes defaming an individual member of that event. As in this case where the individual accused one of the parents of faking a death certificate.
If you make those kinds of specific accusations with no real evidence behind them, your rights to free speech don't protect against that. And they never have.
What your right to free speech does protect, is giving your opinion that it was a conspiracy. And much as I think it's a disgusting and idiotic use of free speech, I believe nevertheless in protecting it.
It's a fine line, but the line has always been there. This case goes up to the edge of that line, but I'm satisfied it doesn't go over it.
This by the way is why I keep scoffing at the argument that such people are just expressing doubts of the official version of events. That's a complete lie. Most conspiracy theorists, sorry, "alternative researchers", at least most of what I have seen, take it a LOT further than that.