If you're interested in the Florida defamation law Stephen Miller was complaining about, read this piece
revolver.news/2024/02/conser…
Revolver News has been on top of the defamation question for quite some time.
In fact, in this piece we encouraged a change in defamation law which would make left wing smear terms like "racist" defamatory per se
To its credit, this is precisely what the Florida law aims to do
revolver.news/2022/06/johnny…
Defamation law is anachronistic in the sense that questioning a woman's chastity is considered so essentially damaging that damages don't have to be proven--defamatory per se
In our age of slut pride, however, it's not hard to see how being accused of racism is far more damaging from reputational point of view
You’re the typical American mid-career professional, a doctor or lawyer or college professor—if you already are one, no need to imagine. What do you fear more?
Being falsely accused of having monkeypox, or of being a “racist”?
Would it be worse to appear on your local newspaper’s front page under a headline suggesting you embezzled money, or one suggesting you are a white nationalist?
The answer, we suspect, is obvious.
This is why updating the law to make such smears as "racist" defamatory per se is an important and long overdue update to defamation law.
So what's wrong then with the Florida law?
The short answer is that the left simply has a far more sophisticated, robust, and aggressive lawfare infrastructure with a demonstrable record of using defamation law to punish and intimidate political enemies
For this reason any relaxation of defamation law, especially the change in "actual malice" standard entertained in florida law, is likely to redound to the net benefit of the left.
Just in past year we saw near billion dollar defamation cases against Fox and Alex Jones.
In the case of Alex Jones, it's clear the attack wasn't really about Sandy Hook, it was about silencing a powerful anti-establishment voice in the Trump era
The details of this will shock you
revolver.news/2022/08/war-ag…
Then of course there's the Ray Epps intimidation tour, in which Epps retained a notorious David Brock linked DNC lawyer to sue Fox over Tucker and my reporting on Epps
The Florida law would embolden such efforts.
Of course, Epps has no case and curiously a precedent involving rapper Tupac explains why
revolver.news/2022/08/war-ag…
Short version is Florida law is well intentioned but ill advised.
The assymetry in lawfare capability means it would bit us in the ass.
If the proposed bill stopped at adding charges of "racism" to defamatory per se category, it would probably be a net positive.
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