Why has free speech failed us? And what can we do about the #disinformation pandemic?

What are the ethical shortcomings of the First Amendment?

The United States Constitution?protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government?interference. It prohibits any laws that establish a national?religion, impede?the free exercise of religion, abridge?the freedom of speech, infringe?upon the freedom of the press, interfere?with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibit?citizens from petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

Free speech is also recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The US government needs substantial justifications to curtail free speech and regulate its content.

One is not liable, either criminally or civilly for anything written or spoken about a person or topic, provided it is truthful or based on honest opinions.

The first amendment is not designed to promote the responsible and accountable use of free speech. It provides little or no protection against smear campaigns targeting individuals and the damages of fake news and disinformation on the moral and political fabric of society. It provide no or little protection for the victims of spurious speech nor any retributions for the perpetrators of such speech.

These unacceptable behaviors have dire consequences in professional, educational and work life. Violators of social norms incur social disapprovals and disciplinary actions. But on the amoral grounds of politics, they thrive without any formal sanctions against immoral violations and transgressions.

• Why do we lack the moral courage to amend the first amendment that enables the exponentiation of disinformation especially on social media?

The first amendment is almost about anything goes, without any sense of responsibility to integrity, civility and fiduciary accountability to discerning truth from the blatant lies of disinformation. We need ethical guidelines to co-create social norms that discern the three major distinctions in free speech.

1. The fiduciary responsibilities of truth-seeking speech with transparent accountability, evidence and verification
2. The amoral manipulative marketing of opportunistic free speech (aka Elon Musk) based on beliefs without any ethical guidelines
3. The dishonest and irresponsible use of spurious speech without any consequences for any wrong-doings

Absolute liberty of free speech is without any ethical compass of discernment: the path to truth decay.

How might we:

• Make distinctions in moral, amoral and immoral free speech so that we can reverse tooth decay?
• De-program cult followers of the disinformation mindset?
• Cultivate a movement truth-seeking, equity peace-makers to end the war of disinformation?

The lack of ethical discernment in these moral distinctions exacerbates dysfunctional polarizations, distrust and democratic decay. With this decay, we descend the spirals into the immoral abyss of pathological lying, cult leaders and their sycophants, with little ethical nor legal recourse to rectify the damages of systemic corruption.

"Shouting fire in a theatre" is such a low standard to curtail the irresponsible use of free speech as an imminent threat to the government. What is far more dangerous is the chronic insidious impacts of unrelenting immoral free speech over time.

Immoral free speech is a wicked problem.

The immoral right to free speech empowers social deviants to be rude, loud and obnoxious without any concerns to truth nor accountability consequences for the harms and traumas inflicted on institutions and people.

Immoral free speech erodes and corrodes the foundations of democracy.

• How might we amplify responsible speech to sideline spurious speech and the blatant lies of propaganda machines?

The questions calls for integrity but it will not have any positive impacts particularly now, when the vested interests of promoting disinformation (such as the Trump's stolen elections) dominate the political landscape and protect the abuses of their self-serving power.

Immoral freedom reigns supreme.

We hold bullies accountable in school and work settings, but we do not hold sociopaths accountable in politics who are far more dangerous. The First Amendment elevates an individual value and right that is ethically inept without any requirements of virtues.

We reap what we sow: invasive virulent weeds.

• When will we have enough of immoral free speech to say "Enough is enough" and hold violators accountable for disinformation?

Otherwise, the first amendment is a covert sociopathic manifesto driven by the demons of pathological megalomania and malignant narcissism. Inadvertently, this amendment is an enabling attractor to build sociopathic lovefests, where negative social deviants connect and thrive to exponentiate fear, hate and mayhem.

These guerrilla propagandists wage unrelenting "shock and awe" campaigns of neo-terroism: uncivil wars of weaponized words without any regard to truth, integrity and transparent accountability. Neoterrorists exponentiate their asymmetrical power through their collective "divide and conquer" mob credo of divisiveness, doubts, deceptions, distrust, dysfunctional polarization and delusions. These offensive attack strategies keep their opponents in disabling defensive shut-downs to perpetuate their asymmetrical power,

How might we:

• Exorcise the GOP, Fox News and associated alt-right media propaganda machines of their demons?
• Amend the first amendment to remedy its failings?

This proposed addition is a first principle or constructor needed to reverse the cancerous propaganda of invasive virulent weeds that stymie the cultivation of virtues.

One is accountable and liable, criminally and civilly for anything written or spoken about a person, institution or topic, for deliberate disinformation based on lies and fabricated negative opinions that have no basis on facts.

The intention of this addition is not to censor free speech. The first amendment is deficient in providing victims of immoral free speech with legal recourse in holding negative deviants and propaganda machines accountable for their sociopathic behaviors. This lack of accountability exacerbates isms, divisiveness and toxicities that in turn undermines democracy.

The rational call for transparent accountability to truth-seeking will encounter fierce attacks, because it threatens the asymmetrical power base of sociopaths.

Why does tyranny win over human rights?

Advocating for these rights against tyranny is like fighting Putin at judo with both arms of democracy tied behind its back.

Democracies that take reductionist perspectives on individual rights are not good defenders against isms, inequities and planetary demise. Disabled democracies become prey to predator leaders with asocial leader personal disorder (#ALPD) with the character flaws of authoritarianism, megalomania, malignant narcissism and sociopathy.

How can we:

• Design a constitutional framework to redress the authoritarianism of corrupt systems ranging from autocracies to crony democracies?
• Align human rights with equity governance to cascade a domino fall of dictators and authoritarian leaders over time?

Why do liberty and freedom fall short?

Despite claims to the contrary, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights implicitly promulgates the systemic biases of individual values over the virtues of equality and social equity. The comments below justify the assertion of this claim and the rationale for the purpose and meaning of the headline question.

• The shadows and the dark sides of liberty enable the abuses of irresponsible freedom and spurious speech. Immoral freedom perpetrates systemic corruption.
• The double-edge sword of liberty focuses much more on individual rights and entitlements than the social responsibilities of freedom. This calls for wielding the moral sword of liberty to co-elevate the altruistic virtues of serving the common good and cutting out the self-centered vices of freedoms that operate at the expense of the good of commons.
• The advocacy for fairness involves using equality and equity to guide how we use the responsible use of liberty and freedom.
• The liberation of moral freedom obliges us to use free speech responsibly, speak truth to power and call out the propaganda of disinformation. These courageous actions challenge the hegemony of corrupt political systems that serve the elites at the expense of the people.
• Sociopaths and their propaganda machines use their immoral freedoms to deliberately disseminate disinformation. They incite fear, fester divisiveness and inflame hate to manipulate the masses for their political gains.

Why do we need to reframe Human Rights?

The Human Rights Foundation sponsors the Oslo Freedom Forum. The 2022 conference theme (May 23-25th) is Champion of Change.

• How will human rights ever stop tyranny?

Tyranny goes to every length to enhance its political power over others, including voter suppression and rigged elections, to name a few tactics of pathological megalomania.

However, the rally call mantra for freedom by oppressed people in autocratic totalitarian states and corrupt crony democracies does not assure the succession of effective political leadership.

Freedom from tyranny and oppression will not ensure equity governance.

• Why do the individual values of liberty and freedom prevail over the social virtues of equality and equity?

Liberty is an individual value for all and not a social virtue. Liberty can be used for the good, the bad and the ugly. Freedom is a right and entitlement but not a social responsibility for the common good. Freedom is moral, amoral and immoral. Freedom without truth-seeking, integrity and transparent accountability is immoral.

The immoral freedom of megalomania unleashes political hegemony, colonization, tyranny and patriarchy. The ruling elites create uneven playing fields of unfair advantages that serve their self-interests. This is a rigged game of privileged entitlements.

Advantagisms are all about the advantaged thriving on taking advantages over the disadvantaged. They violate their fiduciary responsibilities to fairness at the expense of everyday people.

At corporate levels, amoral power monopolize the extraction of finite resources to benefit the shareholders, without any regard to stakeholders, communities and the ecology of the planet. The shadows and dark sides of immoral freedom are ugly. They corrupt our political, legal and economic systems to their core.

"To life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is one of the most powerful pro-value memes in the history of humankind.

• Is this meme based more upon an egocentric sense of entitlements than on a shared sense of social responsibilities, or vice versa?

This meme exalts the freedom of individualism over the good of the commons, the common good and the health of the planet. This reductionist frame fails to zoom out ecologically to view the commons in holistic and interdependent ways. This narrow-minded worldview minimizes the social virtues of equality and equity needed to work for the good of commons.

• How might we better understand how our differences in individual value systems adversely affect the good of the commons and the common good?

Values divide us. Virtues align us.

Liberty and freedom without equity and equality are destructive forces against our humanity and our planet. Social virtues provide ethical guardrails to protect against the immoral abuses of liberty and freedom.

How might we:

• Co-develop equity governance based on fairness, fair play and fair rules?
• Co-create level playing fields of fair opportunities to benefit all?
• Co-elevate our humanity and restore the health of the planet?

Equity governance enables the co-creation of cultural and societal norms that help to co-elevate virtues (true-seeking, transparent accountability of virtues, etc.,). It provides justifications for holding violators of these norms accountable for negative consequences of their actions.

Equity governance unravels corrupt systems that sustain a toxic commons. Corrupt political systems amplify inequities that are globally exacerbated especially during times of distress, such as the Covid pandemic, the climate change emergency and Putin's war in Ukraine.

Alexey Navalny is a champion against corruption. His plight is a stark juxtaposition against Putin's invasion of Ukraine. This discrepancy speaks volumes about the tyrannical abuses of political power and the violations of human rights.

• Why does the history of violence and the violations of human, social and planetary rights keep repeating itself?
• How might we learn from our failings in our educational systems needed to prevent our predestined future?

Ethical cascade of complex questions

This inquired-based process of asking meta-level questions aims to evoke the generative dialogues needed to exponentiate and align collaborative learning at all levels and across all cultures, organizations, communities and networks. This calls for co-creating equity governance based on a shared constellation of virtues. These virtues provide the ethical guard rails for cultivating intergenerational lifelong learning needed to launch #EquityMoonshot.

How might we:

• Emulate the courageous lives of anti-corruption champions but at scale together?
• Scale up how we address the complex web of self-inflicted problems in the 21st century?
• Co-develop new narrative structures that launch ongoing proactive story movements to co-opt us into co-designing and building an equitable, regenerative and sustainable future?
• Move beyond first-order to second-order narrative innovations to co-evolve a learning revolution that co-creates a new abnormal?
• Mobilize the power of weak ties to cultivate a mycelium network for a fair and flourishing future for all?
• Co-create shared meaning about our future mission at all levels (meta, macro, meso and micro)?

The next blogs will address these questions:

• Why do we need to update the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
• Why do we need a Universal Declaration of Social Rights and Responsibilities?

Open ongoing peered-review blog updated based on feedback. This blog aims to connect the dots and engage leaders, thought leaders, executive coaches, mentors. and change agents/makers in learning exchanges and generative dialogues about why complex questions matter. Revisit for updates and enjoy slow thinking about how we can pose and respond to complex questions about cultivating equity governance and virtuous cultures.?

Take the time to reflect about, and make sense of complex questions in communion with kindred spirits and especially with people who have different perspectives. Enjoy exploring how our different mindsets and biases interpret complex questions and how we react and respond to them.?

Embark on collaborative sense-making?journeys of thinking differently and anew together in ways that simplify how we can effectively manage the complexities of addressing wicked problems and challenges. The paths from complexities to simplifications are not simple. Premature simplifications do disservices to complexities and are a part of the learning process to make amends.

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We need to ask ourselves complex questions that engage us in generative dialogues about how we might redress the complex webs of self-inflicted wicked problems in the 21st century.

These wicked problems (such as redressing inequities) arise from the shadows of our un-mindfulness and the dark sides of human nature that sabotage taking on wicked challenges (such as co-creating a constitution of equity governance).

Together, the divisiveness of our shadows and dark side erodes our humanity, breaks down our civilizations and destroys our planet.

Failing to zoom out from the divisiveness of reductionism is our ethical sin against the virtues of using complexity, holistic and interdependent thinking.

Transfixed on reductionism, we lead amoral and immoral paths toward self-destructive melt-downs. To heal the divisive sins of mis-deeds, we must embrace complexity, holistic and interdependent thinking to solve our wicked problems.

The list of wicked problems is long: the personal lack of virtues (such as the integrity of service and authentic altruism); the ethical hypocrisies between professed values and moral actions; the irresponsible use of freedom and free speech by cult personalities, false prophets, media mavericks, marketing savants and immoral saviors; the instant, attention-grabbing marvels of fame; "woo-wow" spectacles that distract us from facing our dire realities; naive hope selling the dope of false dreams; the tribal trances of hero-worshiping follower-ship with blind unconditional loyalty; dysfunctional polarizations driven by divisive fundamentalism and?different priorities in value systems; the injustices of isms and inequities;?the plagues of unfair advantages; the unconscious capitalism of neoliberalism and amoral corporations;?hyper-consumerism and planetary demise; unethical marketing and?the propaganda machines of neo-terrorism (the war of words without regards to truth and transparent accountability); the epidemics of misinformation, fake news and dis-information; the power abuses of autocracies, plutocracies, oligarchies, kleptocracy and corrupt political systems, and terrorism and wars.

Neoliberalism, unconscious capitalism and unethical marketing live in the shadows of short-term profits and fail the two marshmallow test.

The systemic determinants of isms and inequities are a formidable foe.

No wonder we fail to rectify our rigged systems that escalate wealth for the elites, income shrinkages for middle classes and poverty for the poor.

• Which archetype is the lead driver for our wicked problems?

Our political systems are designed to enable a delusional archetype to rise to the top of our food chains. This archetype is asocial leadership personality disorders (#ALPD). The core character flaws that drive #ALPD?are pathological megalomania, malignant narcissism, sociopathy and authoritarianism. This "strongman" archetype epitomizes toxic masculinity syndrome and is the symbol of systemic corruption.

• What can we, the people, do to usurp systemic corruption and thereby dis-empower #ALPD leaders?
• How we co-create the equity governance needed to develop antibodies against our shadows and antidotes against our dark sides that prevent us from co-creating a fair and flourishing future to benefit all?

This questions calls for co-creating generative dialogues about we can launch ?#EquityMoonshot:?open, inspire and align our mindsets to co-design and build an equitable, regenerative and sustainable future (#ERSF) to benefit all of us. We need a mass movement of equity muses asking complex questions that help people learn to think (not what to think) about how we can address our wicked problems.

Muse together and learn about the inspirational cause of #EquityMoonshot. Reflect about this virtuous question.

• How might we lead with the meme, To Love, truth-seeking and the pursuit of equity?

This intergenerational lifelong learning journey with never-ending aspirations inspires people to take glocal (global-local) actions for the common good and the health of the planet. This long-term vision is a monumental learning endeavor for humanity that extends beyond seven generations.

How can we co-create the learning organizations, communities, networks and networks of networks needed to:

• Become open-minded, truth-seeking and free-thinkers in communion with kindred spirits of diverse perspectives?
• Scale up transformational network power to co-create a fair and flourishing future for all?

Ecological regenerative economics, conscious capitalism and ethical marketing live in the light of virtues and long-termism.

• How can we use the liberation ethos of equity governance to deconstruct the colonial hegemony of neoliberalism and plutocracy?
• Why does equity governance liberate freedom?

Equity governance is based on liberty for all and the responsible use of freedom with transparent accountability to truth-seeking and long-termism. This aspiration involves the development of virtues, critical thinking, discernment, verification and cross validation of claims to knowledge with triangulated use of reputable sources.

Never depend on one resource, guru, thought leader, marketing maverick, cult personality or propaganda media outlet.

This mission of truth-seeking depends on cultivating reliable advancements in trustful information and knowledge generation. This is essential for mitigating against the epidemics of mis-information, fake news and dis-information.

Equity governance is an inclusive, collaborative and egalitarian system of shared decision-making, sense-making, systemic stewardship, ecological (regenerative) economics and dynamic distributive leadership.

Equity governance provides a foundation to cross pollinate ideas for co-creativity, open innovation, and generative dialogues. This collaborative learning process is essential to foster humanitarian harmony and political cohesiveness needed to exponentiate social impact entrepreneurship.

• How can we cultivate cultures and co-design systems to bend our dystopian trajectory toward a favorable, fair and flourishing future to benefit all?

Equity governance moves us beyond social safety nets, redistributive wealth and basic income. This calls for re-imagineering the future of work, life and co-creative living to unleash the vast swaths of untapped human potential.

The mission of equity governance is about engaging all people to become open-minded, truth-seeking, free-thinkers, working collaboratively within learning networks, communities and organizations to co-create an ever-evolving human civilization of higher consciousness. This lifelong evolving process of enhancing our brain functioning and developing our virtues is essential for exponentiating human flourishing needed to launch?#EquityMoonshot?for the greater good of all.

Working toward the?#EquityMoonshot?vision is stymied by the elephant in the room. Our dysfunctional systems and their political abuses of power sabotage our aspirations to co-create a fair and flourishing future for all.

We fail to call out the moral timidity and the ethical hypocrisies of redressing the discrepancies between our far-sighted, higher "We" aspirations of our co-operative neocortical brains versus our short-sighted, tribal ("we") responses of our amygdala brains and our short-sighted reactivity of our reptilian brains (the competitive survival of the fittest.)

We are blind to what we can see.

Why do we:

• Better understand our complicities in creating our complex web of self-inflicted wicked problems in the 21st century?
• Allow our political, educational, religious and spiritual leaders to fail us in co-designing an #ERSF?

Let's?#UniteEquityMuses?in asking the right questions about how to cultivate open global mindsets needed to solve the complex web of self-inflicted wicked problems in the 21st century.

• How can we launch #EquityMoonshot with the same priorities given to advances in technology, such as IOT (the internet of things) and space exploration?

Social technologies, AI, cryptocurrencies, NFTs and tokens cannot make up for the inhumanities of our shadows and the dark sides of human nature.

With the ethical guidance of equity governance, we collaborate for the good of the commons and the common good.

These open peer-reviewed newsletters are episodically updated, based on feedback and dialogue at?#UniteEquityMuses?Clubhouse sessions.