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42 Alex Jones: Master of Conspiracy Theories

Alex Jones’ 5 most hate speech, with 24-hour call centres to advise Systems LLC.
on permissible expression. And for years, despite pleas from the
disturbing and ridiculous That said, the doctrine of free speech, so families of the dead children, social media

beautifully entrenched in America's basic law, is organizations like Facebook, Apple, YouTube,
conspiracy theories flawed; it does not take into account the Spotify and Twitter have enabled Jones, carrying
existence in the population of a vicious stupidity his online rants, or providing links to them.
Continued from Page 41 more profound and entrenched than any Effectively, Jones's followers are guns,
reasonable person could have guessed. And loaded by their conspiracy theorist hero and
Lucy Richards is the very personification of it. stocked by some of the biggest digital
Hillary Clinton is running a child
Richards is a 58-year-old woman who companies in America, all for profit.
sex ring out of a pizza parlor should by now be on supervised release from That may now be coming to an end. But

prison, somewhere in Florida. She was, then again, maybe not.
Jones did not invent the so-called “pizzagate” effectively, weaponized by a vile far-right reptile Nine of the Sandy Hook families have
conspiracy theory. named Alex Jones, whose many fans include filed separate defamation lawsuits against Jones,
But Edgar Maddison Welch, the self- U.S. President Donald Trump. Primed and in tandem with a fellow named Marcel Fontaine,
proclaimed “investigator” who fired multiple aimed by Jones, she stalked and criminally who was wrongly identified by Jones as the
rounds into the kid-friendly D.C. pizzeria Comet threatened the family of a murdered six-year- gunman in the Parkland, Fla. school shooting
Ping Pong in late 2016, followed Jones on old. last February.
Facebook and listened to his radio show, Jones makes his living preaching Together, they have shamed Jones's
according to reports at the time. Welch was later conspiracy theories to America's vein of vicious social media platforms into removing his filth.
sentenced to four years in prison. stupidity. Among his more successful crusades For now. (Social media platforms, unlike the
The “pizzagate” conspiracy theory was the idea that Hillary Clinton was connected various level of American government, are not
included the baseless claims that Democratic to a child sex ring operating out of a bound by the First Amendment, and can remove
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her Washington, D.C. pizzeria (which prompted a or censor whatever they like).
top associates were running a demonic sex- gunman to show up at the pizzeria and open But Jones, the self-styled free speech
trafficking ring inside the pizza shop. Jones fire), and that the massacre of children at Sandy warrior, is invoking the Texas Citizens
promoted the theory on his web site and on Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a "false- Participation Act, a law that protects people
social media. flag" operation orchestrated by liberal puppets from being silenced by costly litigation. He is
Followers of the conspiracy relied on buried in the machinery of government, staged actually demanding $100,000 in costs from the
opaque “clues” hidden in emails exchanged in order to build support for gun control and take Pozner family, whom he casts as "public
between Clinton and her campaign chairman, assault rifles away from freedom-loving figures" who aren't entitled to the privacy
John Podesta, which were stolen by hackers and American patriots. normal citizens enjoy.
then released by Wikileaks in the final weeks of Heaven knows, he may actually win.
the 2016 election. An indictment obtained by Harassment of Sandy Hook And there are actually free-speech advocates
Mueller in July alleged that those emails were families who would cheer that.
obtained by Russian intelligence officers. I understand their arguments, and agree
Jones issued an apology for his role in with many of them, at least in principle. I don't
According to Jones, the school shooting was a
promoting the pizzagate conspiracy on the day trust the government to decide which speech is
hoax, and the corpses of the children were in fact
that Welch pleaded guilty. acceptable and which speech offends.
child actors playing roles. The families of the
“I want our viewers and listeners to But it's hard to imagine that the framers
murdered children, according to Jones, were
know that we regret any negative impact our of the First Amendment could have imagined the
commentaries may have had on [Comet Ping complicit in this liberal anti-gun plot, and he has confluence of a creep like Alex Jones with the
Pong owner James] Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, helpfully published their personal details, reach and power of the internet in the age of
according to an affidavit since filed by one of the
or its employees,” Jones wrote. “We apologize Donald Trump, who once appeared on Jones's
families. Millions of visitors to Jones's Infowars
to the extent our commentaries could be show.
website have gobbled up this unspeakable lie,
construed as negative statements about Mr. "Your reputation is amazing," the future
and some have made it their mission to track
Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope that president told Jones. "I will not let you down."
down and harass the families.
anyone else involved in commenting on Since then, Jones has claimed he and
Lucy Richards was one of them.
Pizzagate will do the same thing.” Trump have chatted often. Lately, he's been
Richards was sent to prison last summer obliging Trump by telling his audience that
after pleading guilty to making death threats
Alex Jones deals in vicious special counsel Robert Mueller, the man
against the family of Noah Pozner, a six-year-
investigating Russian interference in the 2016
stupidity. It's not free old cut down by mass murderer Adam Lanza's election, is a child rapist in league with
bullets at Sandy Hook. The judge who sentenced pedophiles.
speech — it's incitement: her told her the family's sad reality was the only
reality, and that she was not entitled to her
Neil Macdonald "alternative facts," a phrase famously invented The birther president
by Trump shill Kellyanne Conway to defend her
boss's presidential lies. In a sense, Trump and Jones are peas in the same
Neil McDonald - CBC pod of ugly-crazy. Both were early to recognize
But Richards was only one of many in
the vicious stupidity out there, and have used it
Jones's posse of gullible idiots. Together, they
Free-speechers – a group of which I am an to enrich and elevate themselves.
have hounded the Pozner family relentlessly,
enthusiastic, gold-card-carrying member – argue Trump, for years, peddled the lie that
tracking them down every time they relocate to
that the best response to offensive speech is Barack Obama was foreign-born and was
escape the harassment. The family now
more speech, rather than the dead hand of the reportedly lives in a high-security community therefore an illegitimate president. He tells his
state. hundreds of kilometres from the cemetery where rallies that undocumented immigrants, rapists
It's a sound axiom, given the primordial and murderers "infest" America. Jones takes
their little boy is buried. They no longer visit his
compulsion of human beings to suppress, or at credit for Trump's applause line about the media
grave, for fear of attracting more nasty attention.
least control, the expression of others, being enemies of the people, with its obvious
It is impossible to imagine losing a child
particularly in the febrile, ultrasensitive times undertone of incitement.
in a school shooting, let alone the surreal
we are living at the moment. Free speech has never been absolute,
targeting by Jones's fanatical fans.
Imagine the result if governments were even in America. Alex Jones's horrifying
But it has all been allowed in the name of
to indulge every demand for protection against free speech. Jones, like other demagogues, has incitement goes too far, even for the speech
offence or insult from every group claiming wrapped himself in the First Amendment, even libertarian in me. []
victimhood? We would soon need a ministry of titling his production company Free Speech