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The Onion buys Infowars

nytimes.com

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Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#121

Post by tialaramex »

consumer451 wrote: post #95
josefresco wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funniest thing would be to keep running the site as-is but swap out the insanity for stuff that reads like insanity but is legit or morally sound. The audience might not notice, and could (IMHO) easily be duped into supporting good causes!

This is exactly what I was thinking. Being funny is great, but for years people will continue to go to the website not knowing what has transpired.

The core idea of satire, which is often missed in supposedly satirical works is that you should not only make fun of the thing you don't believe, but you should also explain what you do believe under the cover of pretending to dismiss it.

For example everybody knows Swift's Modest Proposal does not seriously intend that the problems in Ireland ought to be fixed by literally eating children, but if you read it, the proposal also very clearly explains what should be done, in the form of taxation of the wealthy absentee landlords (many of them English) for example - it just couches all these boring but entirely reasonable steps as ludicrous and easily dismissed while insisting that eating babies is a good idea.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#125

Post by AnimalMuppet »

rightbyte wrote: post #72
afavour wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seems like the article is really gleeful. Good! It should be. Alex Jones is a ghoul making money from dead school shooting victims. Anything that embarrasses him is entitled to as much glee as it wants.

Yes and he profits from fooling mentally ill people. Selling homeopatic pills and whatever. But I think the right to be wrong is way more important than getting at Alexander Jones. The precedent is bad.

The right to be wrong is important.

The right to deliberately lie in ways that harm people is not a "right" that we want to uphold.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#126

Post by AdamN »

jsheard wrote: post #2

The announcement by America's Finest News Source: https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/ Alex Jones response: https://x.com/RealAlexJones/status/1857058831135645739

Alex Jones using Twitter/X is on-brand.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#127

Post by NortySpock »

bogtog wrote: post #79

Really curious what the bidding was like or who else made an offer, since it seems that the Sandy Hook Victims (who own all of the debt?) wanted the sale to The Onion specifically

A buyer is not always required to select the bid of the highest monetary value; sounds like the Onion had a proposal that was "a reasonable sum of money, and also we help lead a healthy way to find a path to redemption for this website and make it a kinder place than before"

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#128

Post by nixdev »

atlanticaccent wrote: post #114
nixdev wrote: post #62

[flagged]

I'm a bit confused. Whilst you don't explicitly say it, are you not suggesting it would be better for the public's opinion of the justice system to not sanction Alex Jones to the full extent of the law, if at all? Your first sentence is that the courts have to be impartial and functional. Ignoring the influence Jones has on the public and fully executing the law as it is laid out by taking InfoWars from Jones sounds…

> Ignoring the influence Jones has on the public and fully executing the law

What "law" exactly do you think needs to be "executed"? Defamation laws? Were these defamation laws ever argued in court? Did you actually follow the trial?

The court claimed that Alex Jones didn't provide documents, documents that never existed, and defaulted him. The defamation laws were never argued in the court case. This action by the court is deprivation of rights, due process rights, under color of law. The judge is a criminal.

If the courts don't function properly, this creates an extremely dangerous climate.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#129

Post by ixtli »

AdamN wrote: post #126
jsheard wrote: post #2

The announcement by America's Finest News Source: https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/ Alex Jones response: https://x.com/RealAlexJones/status/1857058831135645739

Alex Jones using Twitter/X is on-brand.

I hadn't realized how hilarious this is until now

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#130

Post by zrail »

nixdev wrote: post #102
sofixa wrote: post #6

This sounds like an Onion headline. And to add extra spice, they're actually doing it for a good cause, educating about gun safety in cooperation with nonprofits and the families of children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre. Obligatory fuck Alex Jones with a bat with rusty barbed wire. He profited off the misery of murdered kids, this is beyond low.

[flagged]

Wait how is that dumb? It's factually correct.
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