A Connecticut jury has ruled that conspiracy theorist, Infowars broadcaster and Olympic-level liar Alex Jones has to pay $1.5 billion to the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre.
Jones spent years spreading lies about Sandy Hook, profiting from the slander and harassment of people who have already been through some of the worst pain imaginable.
According to one father, people defiled the grave of his murdered child because of what Jones said. “To hear that people were desecrating [my son’s grave] and urinating on it and threatening to dig it up, I don’t know how to articulate to you what that feels like. But that’s where we are.”
Jones was consistently obstructive and “stunningly cavalier” during the trial, according to the judge, refusing to share financial records or website traffic data with lawyers for the families.
Today’s ruling comes a few months after a judge in Austin ordered Jones to pay $78 million to the parents of another Sandy Hook victim.
When assessing just how vile and malicious the Infowars campaign has been, remember how difficult it is to lose a defamation case in the US. Jones has now managed to lose more than one.
Christopher Mattei, who represented the relatives of eight victims, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, asked the jury whether they would “render a verdict that finally forces Alex Jones to understand just how devastating his conduct has been. Because that is the only way he will stop”.
But in truth there may be nothing that makes Jones stop; nothing a figure like him won’t simply repackage as content for his followers. As the verdict was read, Jones — who, it must be stressed, has publicly admitted that the mass slaughter of children he made a fortune denying was in fact “100% real” — did a livestream.
In the broadcast, Jones laughs and asks whether the weeping parents in the courtroom “actually think they’re getting any of this money?”
Elsewhere he says he can drag this saga on through the appeals process: “They want to scare us away from questioning Uvalde or Parkland. We’re not going away. We’re not going to stop”.
Jones then directs his viewers to the Infowars online store, where they can purchase an array of vitamins and supplements.
Problem is it’s only money (that will never get paid). 10 years in jail would be more appropriate
Alex Jones is a loathsome human being (and I use the word “human” reluctantly), a stark symbol of the conspiracy-ridden quagmire that characterises so much of the present-day United States. Although far less prominent, Jones is right up there with Donald Trump when it comes to utterly shameless corruption of the truth in order to profit financially.
He was, and is, prepared to destroy the lives of innocent people for cash, and laugh at them while doing it. And there is no sign that is is going to cease his vile behaviour. Those who watch his show and swallow his lies are exactly the same people who think Trump is some sort of god.
They’re two sick, dangerous grifters who have helped turn America into the nut job capital of the world.
Perhaps even more dangerous is how their followers perpetuate the cycle, encouraging the politicians and media people to become even more extreme to keep them following, and donating/buying/voting.
At a lower level, it reminds me of the audience at Sydney CPAC with people like Stoker and Minchin not extreme enough to make the audience feel that they were getting what they need.
They are another channel of alt right, nativist and eugenics based agitprop saving respectable politicians from getting their hands (public images) dirty and directing manufactured angst at confected tropes or symptoms to then wedge in politicians, especially their own side.
What a vile human being. Oh for the good old days when liars and thieves like him could have tongues and hands removed.
Alex Jones is a symptom of the underlying problem, as is Donald Trump. To misquote our own symptom, there’s a long conga line of arseholes queuing up to take their place in a system as profoundly broken as theirs.
We need to recognise the real problem that played out in the USA and is playing out here right now. There is way too much power and money in the hands of too few and way too much acceptance of that in government and society. There is a dangerous level of admiration for psychopathic (apex predator) traits and little appreciation for how this undermines a society (three words: we become prey).
Bring back the middle class. Share the wealth equitably. Punish predatory behaviour, don’t enable it. Recognise that ill-treatment and exploitation of the vulnerable is the first critical step along a slippery path that takes us all to a very bad place. Australia, we need to be better.
i’m not religious and i’m not for the death penalty, but please god, if you could just organise things so that AJ just happened to wander into a mass shooting and got fatally wounded, that would be much appreciated
Perhaps he could fall out of a window.
A little accident, perhaps?