EDITOR:

Is lying about people, places, conditions and opponents, both political or not, now a legitimate path to power and success?

This was shown to be true in the result of our last election. Some examples of the lies included the behavior of Haitians in Youngstown, Ohio; the extent of crime by Hispanics in a Colorado town; the national inflation rate in 2024; job creation in 2024; and, presently, the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.

It becomes more concerning when free speech is used as the justification in social media, broadcasting outlets, and political and commercial campaigns to lie. The risk becomes even greater when there are large amounts of money funding the lies and personalities that can sell the lies.

Probably one of the best examples is the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany. I use this example to stress the extreme risk present in rationalizing lies that create fear, anxiety, racial or ethnic divisions.

The other important risk is to empower strong men and people of extreme wealth to negate meaningful elections, democratic institutions, the voice of the majority — no one got 50% of the vote for president in November — and protection of the minorities that exist.

It seems to me there needs to be rules in place to limit and counter deliberate misinformation and lies in media and campaigns. We do have defamation laws for individuals. The welfare of our country should be as important.

Gilbert Engel

Niagara, Wis.