Alex Jones is a psychopath.
Alex Jones is a carnival barker, a charlatan, a sick joke.
His name shouldn’t even be spoken. Yet, here we are.
Jones, a proud purveyor of accusations without evidence, forced his way into the national spotlight by shamelessly leading the “911 Truther” movement, which based all of its ‘theories’ on debunked claims first put forth by a small band of individuals who were physically barely out of their teens but whose minds, reasoning skills, and physics experience remained well within the haunts of adolescence.
The easy and obvious debunking of those claims didn’t phase Jones. It never does. In the alternate reality he creates on a daily basis, the ‘government’ dutifully plays the convenient boogeyman and universal excuse for Jones when the truth blows up in his face.
Jones was preparing his conspiracy schtick while still in college, long before 9/11. He first concocted his potion of psychosis mixed with his utter lack of shame to join those accusing the government of staging the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It has continued unabated since, including last year’s Charlottesville tragedy which he immediately labeled an operation contrived by the CIA.
Make no mistake. A healthy cynicism of and an ever-vigilant and critical eye on the federal government and its power are good and necessary. But when they are dragged down into the abyss of self-serving vitriol and the theater of the absurd that is Alex Jones and his ilk, it tarnishes that good and everything it accomplishes.
He is called a conspiracy theorist, but that is not accurate. Theorist is far too legitimate a title for someone so cretinous as Jones. His intellect does not rise to that level. He is conspiracy theater. He creates fiction out of misdirection and sells it as reality. Within minutes of the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombing, Jones was already freeze-framing raw footage of the event and drawing circles of what he deemed mysterious people and things. It is troubling that so many can be led to believe there is legitimacy in the simple act of drawing a yellow circle on a grainy frame of film.
All of the above pales in comparison to Jones’ most egregious act, which in came in 2012 in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones called it a hoax. Twenty-six people dead. Twenty-five families shredded and Alex Jones commits the ultimate act of callousness by claiming — repeatedly and to this day — that it was all an elaborate hoax. He even went so far as to posit that the murdered children were actors.
It is disturbing that so many actually believe the twisted words that come out of his mouth. It’s sad that so many feel disaffected enough to be taken in by his swindle. His YouTube videos collectively boast over one billion views — that’s a ‘b’ for billion, folks. He also uses his outlets to sell supplements and survival gear. The estimated annual revenue from the sales of these products is between $7 and $12 million.
There’s no doubt that Jones ends each day with a wide smile as he puts his head to his pillow, knowing that his deceit goes on one more day and the pool of his blood money grows in his bank account.
While Jones’ brand of crazy appeals to people across the political spectrum, it is concentrated far more on the right. The right needs to assume responsibility for this or risk delegitimizing itself. Jones is a boil that needs to be lanced. The right believes in the free market and it must use that mighty invisible hand to squash this piece of human debris called Alex Jones. He needs to be vanquished and left to the ash heap of history. The right must stop acknowledging Jones and his verbal sewage. Stop quoting him. Stop sharing his videos and website links. Stop inviting him onto shows, even if it’s to ‘add another voice. Stop citing him altogether.
The opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference. That’s how Jones will be stopped because he cannot bear to be out of the spotlight.
The market is the way and the only way this should be accomplished. It is the market, led by those who can wield the most influence, that must mark him for what he is and destroy him.
Worse than enabling Jones to profit from his snake oil is using force and censorship to shut him down. In the era of the Internet, that will will never be successful. To do so would only play right into this charlatan’s hands.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening. To earn a medal from their neighbors inside their shared political echo chamber, tech titans — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al — are removing Jones’ accounts, no doubt with fists raised in the air to the delight of their own sycophants. But those sycophants are no better than the members of the Alex Jones cult.
Banning Alex Jones — or anyone — is not the answer. It has never been the answer and never will be.
Yes, it is sad and maddening that he can enrich himself through deceit. But the market must take care of that. Banning Jones — especially someone like Jones whose followers are practically a cult — only legitimizes him. He will now self-appoint himself as the poster boy for censorship, raising a sword to the jackbooted social media giants and quoting Braveheart as he leads his deceived warriors into battle, a battle after which he will undoubtedly enjoy even greater spoils.
Yet, that is exactly what they’ve foolishly done.
Instead of the tech giants banning Alex Jones, perhaps they should take a look at the fiction put forth from Michael Moore, who is just another version of Alex Jones. Moore hides behind the cloak of film-making, as if it’s more sophisticated and legitimate than talk radio, thereby shielding it from scrutiny and scorn. His ‘documentaries’ are riddled with the same baseless garbage and conspiracy voodoo that Jones peddles. They should even take a look at Hollywood and its fork-tongued soldiers of fortune for the years of garbage and lies it has spewed without the threat of correction or censorship.
If they still have time after examining the baseless conspiracy theories put forth by Moore and Hollywood, perhaps they could turn their attention to college campuses across the country where only a certain political viewpoint is allowed. Come to think of it, they’re probably using the strangulation of thought on today’s college campuses as a guide.
If the left wants to start down the dark road of censorship, banning content, and trampling over the first amendment, it should keep in mind that should a block of well-heeled conservatives decide to join forces to buy majority positions in the publicly traded social media companies, the crime of censorship will find its victims among those whom the left holds dear.
Alex Jones may be the worst of offenders, but his insidious buffoonery is present under more names than just his own. Censor one and you must censor them all.
The weight of Jones’ absurdity would have eventually led to his demise. Censoring him and banning his content have handed him a victory and significantly prolonged the time between now and that glorious day.
Thoughts That Escape Me 