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On Friday, Dec. 15, a federal jury ruled that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani must pay a sum of $148 million to defamation victims Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The two Georgia election workers were forced to flee their homes and hide their identities after Giuliani and others deliberately spread lies about them regarding the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani has already indicated that he plans to appeal the decision.
Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence argues that this fight was worth winning, even if the defendants never see a dime. The ruling is crucial, Lawrence says, because it proves to Americans that conspiracies do have consequences and that knowingly spreading them carries severe legal risks.
And even though we have known of his claimed insolvency for some time now, it was nonetheless particularly important for those women to have proceeded with their lawsuit.
The more we make meaningful examples of those in our society who knowingly and unapologetically push disinformation campaigns, the better. It seems apparent that too many people in our society are particularly vulnerable to conspiracy theories, and it is costing us all greatly. And many want to brush aside the matter, assuming that these vulnerable conspiracy theorists are all simple-minded or maybe mentally unwell. And that may be so in some instances, but that’s not always the case.
According to a 2023 research study conducted by psychologists at MIT, people can be prone to believing in conspiracy theories due to a combination of personality traits and motivations, such as when someone relies strongly on their own intuition, or feels a sense of antagonism and superiority toward others, or maybe perceives threats in their environment.
Some of these individuals are college-educated, they’re community leaders. Average people partaking in conspiracy theories generally tend to have a strong psychological need to have control of their environment so that they feel safer, in addition to feeling like they are superior to others. Opportunists like Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump — they capitalize on these infirmities.
