Two more lawsuits brought against him by Sandy Hook family members are still pending, and he could end up owing millions more in damages.īut, even if Mr. But he’s also a cautionary tale - of what can happen when you cross too many lines, tell too many easily disprovable lies and refuse to back down.
Jones is an inspiration who ascended the profession’s highest peaks. To this new, more subtle generation of propagandists and reactionaries, Mr. If you draw a line at claiming that Bigfoot is real, attention-seeking cranks will simply get their millions of views by positing that Bigfoot might be real and that their audiences would be wise to do their own research to figure out what Bigfoot-related secrets the deep-state cabal is hiding. But they have their own limitations, including the simple fact that conspiracy theorists have gotten more sophisticated about evading their rules. Social media companies can help curb the spread of harmful lies by making it harder for fabulists to amass huge audiences. The truth is that today’s media ecosystem is overflowing with Infowars-style conspiracy theories - from History Channel shows about ancient aliens building the Egyptian pyramids to TikToks made by yoga moms who think Wayfair is selling trafficked children - and it’s not clear that our legal system can, or should even attempt to, stop them.
#You don t have to lie to kick it trial#
Jones into trouble - such as the allegations about Sandy Hook parents that were at the center of his defamation trial - would sound less shocking if uttered today.īut these cases are the exceptions, not the rule. It’s also probable that we’ve become desensitized to conspiracy theories, and many of the outrageous falsehoods that once got Mr. But it’s safe to say that many of today’s leading conspiracy theorists have found the same profitable sweet spot of lies and entertainment value. Jones for inspiring the entire modern cranksphere. It would be too simple to blame (or credit) Mr. Jones on his show and has defended him as “hilarious” and “entertaining”), has borrowed some of the Infowars founder’s connect-the-dots paranoia in arguing, for example, that Covid-19 vaccines can alter your genes. Even Joe Rogan, the popular podcast host (who has hosted Mr. Much of the unhinged coverage and analysis of the legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, which dominated social media this summer, had a Jonesian tinge.
Jones and shares some overlapping interests. The “Red Scare” podcast, which is popular with an anti-establishment “post-left” crowd, has interviewed Mr. Cheese reuses uneaten pizza” and “Wildfires are caused by directed energy weapons.”Ĭertain elements of left-wing and centrist discourse also owe a debt to Mr. Some of them focus on softer subject matter - like the kooky wellness influencers who recently went viral for suggesting that Lyme disease is a “gift” caused by intergalactic space matter, or like Shane Dawson, a popular YouTube creator who has racked up hundreds of millions of views with conspiracy theory documentaries in which he credulously examines claims such as “Chuck E. But they’re pulling from the same fact-free playbook. These creators don’t all rant about goblins and gay frogs, as Mr. Jones’s choleric, wide-eyed style has influenced the way in which a new generation of conspiracy theorists looks for fame online.
When Tucker Carlson stokes nativist fears on his Fox News show, or when a Newsmax host spins a bizarre conspiracy theory about an effort by Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, to have Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court killed, it’s proof that Infowars’ DNA has entered the conservative bloodstream.Įven outside politics, Mr. Jones remains personally enriched by his lies, his shtick is everywhere these days. Jones - a maestro of martyrdom - will no doubt spin his court defeat into hours of entertaining content, all of which will generate more attention, more subscribers, more money.īut a bigger reason for caution is that, whether or not Mr.
#You don t have to lie to kick it free#
Jones and Free Speech Systems, his holding company, at somewhere between $135 million and $270 million.) (And a wealthy one - an expert witness in the trial estimated the net worth of Mr. Jones still appears as a guest on popular podcasts and YouTube shows, and millions of Americans still look to him as, if not a reliable chronicler of current events, at least a wacky diversion. Jones’s Infowars store, which sells dubious performance-enhancing supplements and survival gear, made more than $165 million from 2015 to 2018. But his reach is still substantial, and he has more influence than you might think.Ĭourt records showed that Mr. Jones’s megaphone has shrunk in recent years - thanks, in part, to decisions by tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter to bar him from their services.
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