Who, except for people like Trump, ever said that it’s o.k. to tell lies? But America has reached to the point where telling lies is expected and tolerated behavior.

But lies and misinformation are such a disservice to society and polity that people who tell lies and spread misinformation must be restrained. At least the “social media” has taken the positive step of shutting down or limiting the accounts of some egregious liars. But much more must be done to discourage, indeed, prevent public lies. 

Frankly, I do not know what to suggest. I do think that those who are spreading misinformation about the vaccines for COVID19 are guilty of manslaughter or attempted manslaughter. Politicians who ignore COVID19 or even oppose attempts to contain it are guilty of depraved indifference, at least.

Moving into national politics … The people who continue to assert that Trump was the real winner, that the election was rigged, etc., etc., would, in earlier times have been placed in an institution. Now their every comment is publicized. Politicians who keep telling lies to mask the Jan 6 Rebellion become, eventually, as guilty as the rebels.

At the least, the mainline media can do something like the social media corporations have done and try to limit the spreading of lies. We are guaranteed freedom of speech, but we are not guaranteed an audience. Why, why does every alarmist statement of the conspiracy theorists, every seditious statement of leading politicians and small town militia have to be reported? This is where the media must exercise some self-restraint. Much of their audience has no self-restraint, and their drug-of-choice is scandal, bloodshed, and outrageous behavior. The media must exercise discretion, stop being a platform for vicious people, stop feeding this popular addiction.