** Warning: Some comments transcribed in this article may shock you. **
The post-Trump era could have been Alex Jones’ return to glory. In fact, for the conspiracy pope in the United States, it looks more and more like the end. One more reason to look back on his journey.
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Condemned to pay a modest $965 million in damages to several families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre for falsely claiming they were actors who invented the tragedy, Alex Jones still had a way to do it do again become this guru of the new American right.
Alex Jones yells “YEAH” and “WOOO” with clenched fist, “Put those numbers up” as Sandy Hook families who have lost a child weep as they listen to the verdict read, which Jones asks for 965 million dollars in damages and interest. pic.twitter.com/rTSibYjp1P
– Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) October 12, 2022
That size has assured him of a remarkable impact to say the least, and most importantly laid the foundation for the QAnon world we now find ourselves in. So let’s take a look back at his journey.
Who is Alex Jones?
Telling Alex Jones means, above all, integrating the before and after of 2016 and the election of Trump as American President.
On December 2, 2015, Donald Trump, then candidate for the Republican primary, told the Mr. Jones online show that he would never let him down. Then, hours after being elected President in November 2016, Jones told Hillary Clinton that “the goal of my life, of my career, has finally been reached.”
“I’ll continue. But now that I know, just to tell you, I won,” he exclaims.
Alex Jones is an American conservative radio commentator from Austin, Texas. He is the host of The Alex Jones Show and runs InfoWars.com, a website recognized by many as the fuel for conspiracy theories and fake news, including fact-checking site Politifact.com.
Pupil of Rush Limbaugh
Born in 1974, Jones has scaled the steps of a conservative commentary style made famous in the United States by the late Rush Limbaugh. Jones has always been known to have been greatly influenced by the massacre in Waco, Oklahoma, which he described as “confirmation of the irresistible advance of invisible and evil forces” (reminder: this massacre is headquartered by the federal government of the United States associated with the Davidian sect).
He began his radio career in Austin in 1996 with The Final Edition, then co-founded The Alex Jones Show, which became the InfoWars website in 1999, alongside his ministry.
Screenshot / Matthew Mahon / DER SPIEGEL
Alex Jones poses for German magazine Der Spiegel
The Impact of September 11, 2001
That was when September 11, 2001 happened. He took the lead by making himself one of the strongest proponents of the theory that this attack was a plot by either the Bush administration to promote the “New World Order” or by Israel.
From there, the InfoWars ecosystem accelerates its growth, fueled by conspiracy theories and the explosion of the internet and free online video content.
More and more absurd theories
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jones was the promoter of many theories, all more or less absurd, like the untruth of the Sandy Hook shooting, of course, Hillary Clinton as a demon, the crates of fruit juice that would cause children to become gay , the use of a gay bomb by the American army, George Soros being a goblin, Justin Bieber being an instrument used by Satanists to vampire the consciences of young people, etc.
However, when he is the instigator and propagator of these eccentric theories, he also uses them to goad his army of followers into attacking his enemies.
In connection with the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, after a discussion on his show, a Jones supporter, heavily armed, wanted to storm the pizzeria where the conspiracy allegedly took place.
As a reminder, Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory according to which the Democratic elites like the Clintons or the Obamas and the American financial elites like George Soros or Bill Gates meet in the basement of a Washington DC area pizza place and sacrifice children after she rapes them and gives them drained their blood to use as an elixir of eternal youth.
bullying and banishment
This example is one of many where Jones was also the driving force behind his supporters’ intimidation strategies to fight his enemies when declaring victory after Donald Trump’s election.
Banned from many platforms such as YouTube, Twitter or Spotify since 2018, severely convicted for his lies about Sandy Hook, his legal setbacks are not over yet.
Today we are permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action in response to new reports of tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to previous account violations. https://t.co/gckzUAV8GL
– Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018
He is therefore still being attacked for defamation by one of those who videotaped the killing of a left-wing protester by a neo-Nazi during the Charlottetown events in 2017. The latter, Brennan Gilmore, he had accused of being a “deep state” agent.
The bombing of the Capitol
He is also being subpoenaed to appear before the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to speak about his involvement in planning the events.
The night before the attack, he was present on an adjacent stage with members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, white racist militias, and shouted, not knowing “how this is all going to end, but if they want to fight they better do it.” do believe they have one”.
Always admired… despite everything
Despite this, he is still championed in the media by figures such as Fox News star anchor Tucker Carlson, who calls him a better journalist than many reporters in the mainstream media. And politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene keep visiting her, bringing her more views and traffic, and therefore advertising revenue.
Meanwhile, his online presence continues: his memes, his new products and guides of all kinds, and his donation platforms ensure him a steady flow of income that may allow him to pay the many compensations he has to make. .