I don't like using the phrase "conspiracy theorist" to describe people like Alex Jones, because people like Jones are not "theorists." They're snake oil salesmen.
Theorists would be more like scientists. Building on knowledge with hypotheses, perhaps even testing them with research and experiments with controls, collecting data. ... You know, they check to see whether their theories are true.
People like Jones are only interested in getting an audience to believe them. Tucker Carlson immediately comes to mind, but there are others, such as the former president. During the Jan. 6 hearings, witness after witness testified that Donald Trump knew the 2020 election wasn't stolen. But he kept repeating the lie because it was good for the business of Trump. And he kept doing this even after his supporters began threatening poll workers. Even after they threatened to hang the vice president of the United States.
For years Jones has been making millions from the lies he's spread about the young children who were murdered in their school in Newtown, Connecticut. Gotta tell ya, it takes a special kind of person to do that. But in calling the Sandy Hook massacre "manufactured" and "completely fake with actors," all Jones really was doing was presenting America with a choice: keep listening or tune him out. A lot of Americans chose the former, sadly.
We'll see what happens to Jones next now that a jury in Texas awarded plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis a hair under $50 million in punitive and compensatory damages. Jones' company, Free Speech Systems LLC, filed for bankruptcy protection during the trial. But a witness estimated Jones was worth more than $270 million.
Even sorting out the murky finances will still be faster than fleshing out the cultural impact. Will Americans be any less likely to believe nonsense like Jones spouted?
It's no wonder that conspiracy theories gain traction. Our government's well-documented history of nefarious activity does give reason to second-guess officials. There is a direct correlation between the unapproved 40-year syphilis studies conducted on Black people in the South and the understandable modern-day hesitation among Black Americans to receive a COVID vaccination — though I do not believe the COVID vaccines are harmful.
More recent events ought to keep us alert for conspiracies as well. Watergate. Falsified police reports and affidavits to justify questionable shootings. Members of Congress doing unusually well in the stock market. Well, it's clear why distrust of the government exists.
However, distrust is a feeling, not a theory. If you have a theory, the next step is to try to find out whether it's correct, to learn more about reality. Not look for ways to prop up hunches regarding things we don't like. Jones, Trump, Carlson and their ilk manipulate distrust to supplant reality, not pursue it. When challenged, these charlatans dig in even more, not with information, but with rhetoric that seduces the worst in us.
Their supporters interpret this as principled conviction. Really, the cornered deceivers are just trying to protect their revenue stream or reelection chances. Often, they conflate accountability with witch hunts, or try to change the subject with false equivalencies. When all else fails, they claim they are being canceled.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in defending Jones, told the CPAC crowd on Friday that the pundit is "being forced to pay out millions and millions of dollars, and no one agrees with what he said, but what we're tired of is the political persecution." Hold up. If no one agrees with what he said, how did he amass millions? And if no one agrees with what he said, why did she regularly appear on Infowars without challenging his words? Like him, Greene too has hurled unsubstantiated claims of a staged mass shooting involving children — in her case, Parkland, Florida, — so maybe she's playing a little pre-emptive defense.
We all know the most delicious moment from the defamation suit was the revelation that Jones' lawyers accidentally sent data from his iPhone, including two years' worth of text messages, to the plaintiffs' lawyers. Given how close Jones and Greene are, maybe she's concerned about some of the exchanges between the two. After all, if what the two of them have shared on social media sites was enough to get them banned, one can only imagine what they may have shared about other mass shootings, the Jan. 6 terrorist attack, the 2020 election and other controversial events privately. If nothing else, it does make me wonder whom else he has been communicating with considering how popular he is with elected officials like Greene. And what was said in those exchanges.
Maybe even what was plotted.
That's when America will be presented with another choice: keep listening or tune them out.
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