Friday, August 10, 2018

Why Social Media Platforms Are Finally Saying Adios to Alex Jones

by Nomad

If somehow you have been divinely blessed and have never seen the InfoWars show and Alex Jones' "performances," here's a top ten list of the show's most ridiculous moments, courtesy of WatchMojo. 

   

Godfather of the Conspiracy Theory

Since he began his career in 1995 in Austin, Texas, Alexander Emric Jones has been called "the Godfather of the Conspiracy Theory." It's his stock-in-trade. Throughout the 90s, he spread tall tales about such things as cultish rituals at the Bohemian Grove and the impending take-over by the New World Order.

At the end of the millennium, Jones scared the bejesus out of his gullible listeners with visions of imminent doom.  Right up until the last day, he promoted fears that the Y2K programming glitch was going to shake Western economies to their foundations, people would be rioting in the streets, followed by a harsh crack-down and- presto- you have been enslaved by the Overlords.
And a lot of people believed him.   
He was accused of trying to whip his listeners into a frenzy of panic and confusion on New Years' Eve with fake news stories of cash machines in Europe failing, a Pennsylvania nuclear plant shutting down and Putin launching a war. 
Of course, none of it was true. 

Did his hysteria have any to do with his own his survivalist shop called "The Hardware Store", with guns, ammo, MREs, and eight-stage water filtration systems? His critics thought so and when the world didn't end, many people thought Alex Jones' career should have.
Then came 9/11.

Since then, Jones has claimed that nearly every national tragedy was really a false flag operation staged by the US government. The list of tragedies that Jones and Infowars have claimed were false-flag include: the 9/11 attacks, the Columbine school shooting, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sandy Hook shooting, and the Boston Marathon bombing, among others.

As one source points out:
Any time anything interesting happens anywhere on Earth, there's a 100% chance Jones has found "proof" it is either (1) a false flag operation by the New World Order or (2) a "massive coverup operation" run by the New World Order. No exceptions.
In case you haven't heard, Hurricane Katrina was not just a botched relief operation. No, sir, According to Jones, it was actually an opportunity to test out the FEMA concentration camps. Those mysterious black helicopters were actually the “strike force of the New World Order.”

Both the 2015 San Bernardino attack and the 2016 Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando were false flag operations. The government was the enemy.

First Lady Michelle Obama was actually a man. Her husband, Barack Obama is the devil and Hillary Clinton is actually a demon. But then, the world is ruled by Satanists, and Satan is real. Lady Gaga’s Superbowl halftime performance was satanic.

Liberal Democrats are plotting a Civil War. Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame might have been murdered in order to boost ticket sales. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was also murdered.

According to Jones, Bill Gates is a eugenicist and IBM is a front.

The government has been using chemicals to create gay people. He has also asserted that the government has control over the weather and is covertly using it as a weapon. As evidence, he cited the devastating tornado which hit Oklahoma in 2013.

Amazing, Surreal and Scary

The list of nonsense goes on and on. Time after time, Jones has demonstrated how anything- absolutely anything- can be transformed into a "Deep State" plot.
And this is the man whom candidate Donald Trump once praised and complimented for his "amazing" reputation. Indeed, there was an understandable bond between the two men.

During the campaign, Trump and Jones created their own "alternative facts" and false claims. At one point, Jones and  Trump adviser Roger Stone openly campaigned for Trump at the Republican national convention by selling T-shirts emblazoned with the word "RAPE" and an image of Bill Clinton.
Rolling Stone reports that Jones said that Trump thanked him for his victory.
After the election in November, Trump called Jones to thank him for his service. As Jones told it, “He said, ‘Listen, Alex, I just talked to kings and queens of the world, world leaders, you name it, but he said it doesn’t matter, I wanted to talk to you, to thank your audience.'”
Jones seemed stunned that the president of the United States could be so enamored by such crazy theories.
“It is surreal to talk about issues here on air and then word for word hear Trump say it two days later..It is amazing.”
Surreal and, for Americans trying to cling to their sanity, deeply frightening.

Crossing the Line

But since Jones has been spewing this rubbish for well over 20 years, why has social media- Apple, Facebook, Youtube and Spotify (but not Twitter)-decided to take a stand just now? It might have something to do with his July 23 InfoWars broadcast

That was when he accused special counsel Robert Mueller of violent child sex acts and called him "a monster." He also fantasized on air about shooting Mueller, "wild west style." 
"It's not a joke. It's not a game. It's the real world. Politically. You're going to get it, or I'm going to die trying, bitch. Get ready. We're going to bang heads."
At first, Facebook declared that Jones’ threat and unfounded claim didn’t violate any of its rules. Later, when other social media outlets banned Jones, Facebook seemed to reverse that earlier decision. Facebook removed four pages: the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page.
It also suspended Alex Jones’ personal account.

Politifact noted:
Facebook released a detailed press statement on the matter. Facebook said they recently removed four videos from Alex Jones’ pages, as they violated their hate speech and bullying policies.
They had been notified that Jones' pages glorified violence and had used "dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies."

Jones' response to the social media is, in every way, predictable. He claims he is being censored and this silencing is a conspiracy engineered by the Deep State.