Alex Jones

 

People Got To Be Free

 Hear the shoutin' from the mountains on out to the sea
No two ways about it, people have to be free
Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be
Natural situation for a man to be free 

Is freedom of speech absolute? 

Charles Dicken was right in his novel Oliver Twist. "The law is an ass—an idiot.". One only has to look at the writing of that “distinguished” lawyer, former New Jersey Superior Court Judge, former professor at the Brooklyn Law School, and current conservative pundit Andrew Napolitano for proof. Writing in the New Jersey Herald on October 20, 2022, https://www.njherald.com/story/opinion/2022/10/20/alex-jones-and-the-freedom-of-speech/69577197007/, Napolitano says that any school child can see that Alex Jones was protected by the Freedom of Speech of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. 

The problem is that Judge Napolitano apparently doesn’t understand the meaning of that protection. It was intended to protect the freedom of an individual to express an opinion. However it does not mean that anything can be expressed as an opinion. It does not supersede legal judgments being rendered for perjury, slander, defamation, etc. It does not protect the speaker from the consequences of expressing an opinion, famously falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater. If a stampede and injury results, the fact that it was only “speech” does not protect the speaker from the consequences of his lie. 

Alex Jones did not merely express his opinion. He stated those opinions as facts, profited by expressing those opinions, and there were deaths threats and other crimes that were the consequences of his “speech.”   If it were merely his opinion and was expressed as opinion then of course it was protected. However an individual must bear the responsibility for the consequences of his words. Just as King Henry II was responsible for the murder of Thomas Becket when he said “"Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”, so too is Alex Jones guilty for the garbage he spewed. Don’t be misled by Andrew Napolitano’s credentials. He is an ass. Alex Jones was not found guilty for speaking. He was found guilty for the nature and consequences of his “speech.”