If there was fraud in the last election, would the January 6 insurrection be justified?
Joe Rogan brought up the likelihood of election fraud in the recent Tim Dillon episode. What are these personalities like Rogan and Carlson doing when they wantonly suggest to their audience that the integrity of the country is inherently compromised? There is likely a population who would be moved to take up arms, and I wonder if they would be justified to do so.
I get that Rogan and Carlson might be pussies - because if that's what they really believed, what are they doing just suggesting it on air and not taking action? Or, maybe they're not convicted in what they're saying and thus just suggesting to their viewers who want to believe in election fraud that there was election fraud.
So what responsibility do media personalities have when they make these suggestions and it results in a civil war? I suppose if it's justified, maybe it's not "that big of a deal." But if it's not, and the claim is not true and it results in violence in the streets, how is responsibility accounted for? And why make such a claim to your audience without taking any action yourself - but I suppose the responsibility to take personal action would be lifted if it turned out these media personalities were just fickly gossiping.
To test the right to freedom of speech via spreading rumors might "justify" to someone else more authoritarian surveillance and control of information. If these personalities believe in what they are saying, I suppose there isn't anything wrong with it at all - although I personally would rather see people take real action than just talk talk sentiment and rhetoric until somebody down the line gets the idea to get a gun.
My personal read is that Carlson suggests the narrative out of political motivation and Rogan is caught up in the cultural temperature of his surroundings, and so echoes the sentiment. Am I right? I don't know (and I hope I'm not); the suggestion about Carlson is pretty heinous in my book, which is why I address it all.