So here are three suggestions to tamp down rampant idiocy. First, we need to reform and toughen our liability laws by plugging statutes enabling risk-free speech. Free speech does not mean irresponsible speech. Don’t worry, the First Amendment is brief enough, yet flexible enough, to accommodate this new interpretation.
Here we are not talking about blasphemy, uncomfortable, unpopular, extreme, political, sarcastic or even racist speech. That’s the price of living in a free and pluralistic society. Instead we are concerned with speech asserting verifiable lies, especially lies which can reasonably be proven to drive others to commit crimes or are irreparably harmful.
And yes, heightened liability could be a slippery slope descending into Orwellian tyranny. The definition of a “lie” can be manipulated, and history provides many examples¹. Except we are already barreling toward hell in a car fueled by AI disinformation and demagoguery, where lies outpace reasoned debate. The field is flooded with sh*t, to quote Steve Bannon, and when we take shortcuts to making decisions, reason suffers. Society desperately needs to install a few handbrakes.
Heightened liability expands on the limited narrow free-speech exceptions of “intended to and likely to cause imminent violence” or libel made with “actual malice and reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
So if you claim a new fruit drink actually helps prevent disease but is really just empty calories, you can’t wiggle out under some weak FDA exemption for nutraceuticals. It’s both dangerous and teaches poor reasoning skills. That exemption must go. Or hide under a broad free speech umbrella by insisting covid vaccines are part of conspiracy to inject microchips. People die from these lies. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.
Nor can you produce a campaign ad implying your opponent is a successful businessman when in fact they are a convicted scammer. Not only will you be taken to court, but the fines should be severe and might even disqualify the campaign from matching funds.
Second, we must address blind trust. Blind trust feeds on itself by encouraging its adherents to isolate from non-believers. It festers into closed pustules of diseased thinking. These infections must be drained, and that means finding ways to mix all niches of society together so they engage in dialog and painful debate.
The solution here is very difficult, and harkens back to ancient Athens where Kleisthenes broke apart existing cliques and forced them to work together as new, homogenous political units. Soon their allegiance shifted from parochialism to the greater good.
Study after study demonstrates the financial, social and mental advantages of breaking up cabals. Mechanisms include more affordable housing to limit geographic income stratification, vibrant public schools, multi-member districts so all communities share in power, effective anti-discrimination laws, equitable taxation which treats all sources of income and wealth uniformly, and revitalizing rural and rust-belt communities.
Thirdly, we must bolster public education in critical thinking and shared values. Realistically, most stupid habits are ingrained and intractable, but others can be moderated with training and exposure to new ideas².
Unfortunately, learning how to think clearly has fallen by the wayside. Between the politicization of civics classes, the fragmentation into charter, private and home schools, narrowcast social media and the soft logic of “following my personal truth”, the ability to reason accurately and be open to change has atrophied. We are most comfortable living in a self-reinforcing echo chamber. Refusing to open our minds and hearts to alternate realities.
Educational and cultural reform are the long-game. It's our personal responsibility to support the many initiatives reaching across political divides, teaching critical thinking, and reinforcing core democratic values at the national and local neighborhood level.
Otherwise the stupid will win, by default.