04-14-2020, 02:19 PM
(04-14-2020, 01:57 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-14-2020, 12:16 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Making derogatory stuff up about someone and publishing it is either slander or libel. It's good for a profit-eating lawsuit, and bad for one's credibility.
Really??? Do the liberals know that is true or possible? I've never seen that stop a liberal from doing it to me. Did you know that I was the force that got the moderator that you used against me FIRED? Like I said, you have to be careful about who you mess with these days. You messed with the popular leader of a powerful group of individuals.
Do you remember when I had to intervene on your behalf because you said something stupid in the presence of a social justice warrior and one of my group joined in just for shits and giggles? I helped you out because I felt somewhat responsible and see the panic in your responses and understood that you were unable to defend yourself from a vicious adversary. Hint: I did that after you had me banned and I even intervened and took on a real racist fascist for you too.
Defenses against libel and slander include (1) no damage to the plaintiff and (2) the truth. As two examples Benedict Arnold, who had moved to England, was able to point that derogatory stuff about him was false. But even in England his reputation was so bad that he could not establish that he had been damaged. In a lawsuit by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell against pornographer Larry Flynt in which Flynt created a mock-ad accusing Falwell of incestuous sex with his mother, Falwell lost the case because no reasonable person could believe the smear.
The second is obvious. Journalists are careful as a rule to rely upon two sources or official sources (which are generally recognized as definitive), and their employers usually employ fact-checkers to verify stories. This is especially true when the story might be derogatory. Newspapers typically make corrections to articles when something is amiss -- even a misspelling of a name.
So here's how I see it: "outing" me as gay would not constitute slander or libel even if it were false because I could still hold all jobs that I have ever held (including as a substitute school teacher) because homosexuality per se is perfectly legal. In contrast, outing me as a child abuser or a drug addict if such is false would cause me to have lost the job as a substitute teacher. If someone fabricated such about me and released it I would sue the Hell out of him. Accusing someone convicted of espionage wrongly of drug trafficking would be libelous or slanderous if such were false, but the reputation would of the spy would be worthless.
You are free to fabricate a story at any time; just make sure to identify it as fiction.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.