Author Topic: Alex Jones being sued  (Read 4043 times)

Offline Luke Pemberton

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 1823
  • Chaos in his tin foil hat
Alex Jones being sued
« on: April 17, 2018, 10:55:25 PM »
I'm not going to put this in other conspiracy theories, as I don't wish to raise Sandy Hook as a conspiracy theory.

BBC News - Sandy Hook parents sue radio host Alex Jones

This is indeed good news. It is time that people like Jones were held accountable for such wicked ideas.

LO: If you feel this has the potential to attract discussion that the people here find offensive, please delete the thread. I won't object.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein.

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people – Sir Isaac Newton.

A polar orbit would also bypass the SAA - Tim Finch

Offline gillianren

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 2211
    • My Letterboxd journal
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2018, 12:28:40 PM »
I hope he gets what's coming to him.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline Obviousman

  • Jupiter
  • ***
  • Posts: 735
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2018, 04:44:17 PM »
USD$1M isn't enough. Punitive damages (is that what the US call it?) should be an order of magnitude higher.

Offline twik

  • Jupiter
  • ***
  • Posts: 595
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2018, 11:23:43 AM »
I think it's high time this was done. Selling outright lies isn't freedom of the press, and for too long Jones and his ilk have been playing "I don't *really* believe it but the yokels lap it up!" Real people are getting hurt, and the mind of America is being corrupted.

Offline gillianren

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 2211
    • My Letterboxd journal
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2018, 12:31:14 PM »
The only thing I worry about is the automatic, "See?  They're trying to silence me!"
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline LunarOrbit

  • Administrator
  • Saturn
  • *****
  • Posts: 1046
    • ApolloHoax.net
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2018, 02:12:40 PM »
LO: If you feel this has the potential to attract discussion that the people here find offensive, please delete the thread. I won't object.

While I would rather people didn't discuss the tasteless Sandy Hook conspiracy theories in this forum, I don't have a problem with discussing the legal consequences of spreading horrible lies about people.

People like Alex Jones need to learn that they can't just go around defaming people and making up ridiculous stories about them. He has gotten away with it for too long. Before Sandy Hook it was the families of 9/11 victims that he would accuse of being part of an "inside job".
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth.
I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.
I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)

Offline Luke Pemberton

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 1823
  • Chaos in his tin foil hat
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2018, 02:15:56 PM »
The only thing I worry about is the automatic, "See?  They're trying to silence me!"

You have much more reasoned views on conspiracy than me. I also think you are much more informed than me from an academic and intellectual perspective. My understanding of this case is that Alex Jones has accused actors of playing the parents to meet agendas. My 2 questions.

1) How can anyone believe so many conspiracies exist that involve a nefarious state player that want to silence people?
2) Why would anyone want to create a conspiracy that involves the shooting of children?

I cannot rationalise this in my head, particularly question 2. I was going to say *my rational head*, but reading your commentaries on this subject, conspiracy theorists are also rational in other aspects of their life.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2018, 02:32:49 PM by Luke Pemberton »
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein.

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people – Sir Isaac Newton.

A polar orbit would also bypass the SAA - Tim Finch

Offline Luke Pemberton

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 1823
  • Chaos in his tin foil hat
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2018, 02:17:59 PM »
LO: If you feel this has the potential to attract discussion that the people here find offensive, please delete the thread. I won't object.

While I would rather people didn't discuss the tasteless Sandy Hook conspiracy theories in this forum, I don't have a problem with discussing the legal consequences of spreading horrible lies about people.

People like Alex Jones need to learn that they can't just go around defaming people and making up ridiculous stories about them. He has gotten away with it for too long. Before Sandy Hook it was the families of 9/11 victims that he would accuse of being part of an "inside job".

Hi LO: I posted my questions to Gillian while you were posting this reply. I hope question 2 does not fall into the discussion of Sandy Hook, but rather why anyone could even think this. Again, please remove my reply if you think it may spill over into discussing the theory itself.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein.

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people – Sir Isaac Newton.

A polar orbit would also bypass the SAA - Tim Finch

Offline Zakalwe

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 1588
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2018, 02:34:10 PM »


1) How can anyone believe so many conspiracies exist that involve a nefarious state player that want to silence people?
2) Why would anyone want to create a conspiracy that involves the shooting of children.


Money, pure and simple, allied with a particularly nasty personality. He knows that his fortune relies on appealing to the kooks. He admitted during his divorce that his personal was mainly an act. So it's an act (or a pretence of an act) in order to keep the dollars rolling in.
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " - Isaac Asimov

Offline gillianren

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 2211
    • My Letterboxd journal
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2018, 12:38:32 PM »
I am not an expert on the psychology of conspiracism.  But the answer to your first question is extremely complicated.  Because there's the people who believe and the people who claim they believe for financial benefit, and Alex Jones has claimed to be both.  But I honestly think it's an extension in a lot of ways of the same thinking that Tim Finch is showing.  He has to be smarter than everyone else.  You can tell from his writing that it's deeply important to him.  Knowing something you don't know lets you feel smarter, and they don't tend to think through the ramifications of "the government silences people."  Because somehow, they are brave and it means that the government won't silence them?

As for two, if you mean, the conspiracists . . . I honestly believe that a lot of them have a hard time believing that anyone but themselves is real.  Or at least anyone but people they know personally and are close to.  I've been told that everyone who works at JPL is an actor; I had a lengthy discussion with a friend from high school who works in their business office about why she didn't get invited to any of the good Oscar parties.  Another friend has been on the news several times to talk about his son's measles from several years ago, and there are people on the internet who insist that friend, his wife, and his son are all actors hired by Big Pharma to make people vaccinate their children because crazy whatever.  And, okay, I met my friend when he was playing Rooster in his junior high production of Annie, I grant you.  But to some people, literally everyone they don't know personally might as well be an actor.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline nomuse

  • Jupiter
  • ***
  • Posts: 859
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2018, 09:41:53 PM »
So...Truman Delusion?

Offline gillianren

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 2211
    • My Letterboxd journal
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2018, 03:22:37 AM »
Something like that, yes.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline Luke Pemberton

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 1823
  • Chaos in his tin foil hat
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2018, 06:47:11 AM »
I am not an expert on the psychology of conspiracism.  But the answer to your first question is extremely complicated.  Because there's the people who believe and the people who claim they believe for financial benefit, and Alex Jones has claimed to be both.  But I honestly think it's an extension in a lot of ways of the same thinking that Tim Finch is showing.  He has to be smarter than everyone else.  You can tell from his writing that it's deeply important to him.  Knowing something you don't know lets you feel smarter, and they don't tend to think through the ramifications of "the government silences people."  Because somehow, they are brave and it means that the government won't silence them?

As for two, if you mean, the conspiracists . . . I honestly believe that a lot of them have a hard time believing that anyone but themselves is real.  Or at least anyone but people they know personally and are close to.  I've been told that everyone who works at JPL is an actor; I had a lengthy discussion with a friend from high school who works in their business office about why she didn't get invited to any of the good Oscar parties.  Another friend has been on the news several times to talk about his son's measles from several years ago, and there are people on the internet who insist that friend, his wife, and his son are all actors hired by Big Pharma to make people vaccinate their children because crazy whatever.  And, okay, I met my friend when he was playing Rooster in his junior high production of Annie, I grant you.  But to some people, literally everyone they don't know personally might as well be an actor.

Thanks for your considered reply.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein.

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people – Sir Isaac Newton.

A polar orbit would also bypass the SAA - Tim Finch

Offline gillianren

  • Uranus
  • ****
  • Posts: 2211
    • My Letterboxd journal
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2018, 01:39:43 PM »
You're quite welcome.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline twik

  • Jupiter
  • ***
  • Posts: 595
Re: Alex Jones being sued
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2018, 01:34:33 PM »
I think some people can easily exist in a state of "well, it *could* be true, so I'll provisionally call it true. If someone proves it absolutely isn't, well, that has no effect on all the other things I say that *could* be true." It's like Schrodinger's Truth. This sort of thinking allows people like Alec Jones to proclaim conspiracies all over the place, yet feel no shame whenever something they've supported is proved wrong. They never *completely* believed it in the first place.

This is why so many of them fall back on "just asking questions" or "I've shown you the dots, correct them yourself." They prefer to live in a twilight land where all these things are possibly true, but none of them are conclusively true.