InfoWars’ Alex Jones peddles in the conspiracy theory world of calling major tragedies “false flags” carried out by the ‘deep state’ or other mysterious actors. Everything from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building are fodder for Jones’ conspiracy theories. It’s his touting of the idea that the tragic mass murder of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 was entirely faked by secret forces that has gotten him into his most recent legal bind.
Sandy Hook victims’ families have been hounded for years by absolute cretins who believe Jones’ assertions that nobody was killed, and that these parents are really paid “crisis actors” perpetrating a life-long hoax on the American public in some ploy to take away your guns and force you into servitude. After dragging his feet and diligently obstructing the legal process, defamation lawsuits ended in rulings that Alex Jones was indeed guilty of purposefully promoting these unconscionable lies.
On Monday it was reported that Jones was “beset by a mysterious medical condition days before he was scheduled for a deposition” in one such lawsuit about Sandy Hook. Of course, this “medical condition” seems not to have stopped Jones from being able to record the high-octane lie-fest that is his show.
According to The Daily Beast, the mystery illness was seen by most as what Jones might call a “false flag.” Lawyers representing the Sandy Hook families in the case called it an “obvious gambit” to delay Jones’ deposition. A deposition would potentially force Jones to once again admit that the things he says are bullshit and he knows they’re bullshit and he’s a professional liar who makes money by lying to people about the miseries in the world. It is biblical-level dirt-baggery.
According to the report:
A lawyer for Jones provided the court with a doctor’s note claiming Jones was recovering from home. But Jones was still able to record his four-hour show, apparently from his studio, on Monday afternoon—when he was supposedly under the doctor’s care. The lawyers noted that the only doctor he was near at the time, InfoWars guest and prominent ivermectin booster Dr. Ben Marble, didn’t appear to be treating Jones for anything.
Alex Jones is what scientists might call a scumbag. His InfoWars show has the distinction of being the early digital-era version of the Weekly World News. The problem is that Alex Jones doesn’t acknowledge that he peddles lies, unless he is in court. This, combined with the fact that his audience is filled with the kinds of folks that have been fed a steady stream of far-afield conspiracy theory, means his InfoWars is presented, like Fox News, as “news.” The trick ,of course, is that there are very real conspiracy theories that have proven to be true. But that’s not the kind of stuff that Jones peddles in.
People like Jones base almost everything they do on the foundational idea that what you saw and read and heard not only didn’t happen, it 100% didn’t happen. As a result, everything is an onion layer of conspiracy because the truth is always just one step out of reach. It is this piece of psychological calculus that keeps the suckers on the hook and willing to pony up money. There is no reaching an answer, and every day there is a new revelation that can be had if you just tune in and listen to the ads, and maybe buy the supplements he’s hawking. And while this is a great formula for creating a television series like The X-Files, it is much more destructive when people are basing their view of reality on it.
Jones and others will sprinkle in real conspiracy evidence like the CIA’s clandestine operations in Central America—and their negligence and/or complicity in allowing drugs to be smuggled into the United States—but instead of speaking to those details, Jones pushes aside that kind of bombshell in order to promote more fantastical, more oppressive, and ultimately much more unwieldy conspiracies of secret deep state agents and aliens controlling the planet’s population.
His interests are so Machiavellian in nature and his pursuits so singularly self-aggrandizing that he has proven himself willing to, time and again, harass and terrorize mothers, children, and families who have experienced unspeakable tragedy. His rise has come alongside the MAGA, QAnon wing of the Republican Party—something that bubbled into the popular political sphere after President Barack Obama was elected in Nov. 2008. His legal woes also mirror those of the our former, twice-impeached president and other once-fringe power brokers.
Whether or not Jones will continue to come down with medical emergencies remains unknown. Whether or not the judge in this case will accept more and more excuses for Jones’ inability to be deposed also remains unknown.
