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The Onion buys Infowars

nytimes.com

241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#241
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whoops, looks like you let the mask slip! I see you started this thread debating the merits of trust in the court system, I'm relieved we've finally got to the crux of it. You consume and identify with the kind of crank material Infowars publishes. Thank you for letting us know.

[flagged]

> Alex Jones was declared to be in default for failing to provide a document that never existed in the first place.

You've said this numerous times. It isn't true.

> In her ruling, Bellis criticized Jones’ attorney for providing only “sanitized, inaccurate” financial records and showed “callous disregard” for her repeated rulings to provide complete analytics data. She found Jones’ attorneys actions “were not just careful” but constituted “a pattern of obstructive conduct” requiring the most severe sanction of default, what she called a “last resort,” as reported by the Hartford Courant.

https://firstamendmentwatch.org/judge-finds-alex-jones-liabl...

It was for a pattern of behavior, not any single document. Speaking of patterns of behavior, you've now left three increasingly unhinged replies to my single comment. Whatever impression it is you're trying to create, I don't think it's working.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#242
post #134
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the article didn't give me any confidence it's actually real/true. Which could be seen as a compliment.

It is actually true! https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/business/media/alex-jones...

No-paywall link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/business/media/alex-jones...

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#243
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> supplements of a dubious nature They are re-labled existing products that are sold in other places, and unironically already-recognized, before being re-labled by InfoWars, as very high quality. If you're gonna criticize InfoWars you have my 100% support in your right to do so, but try not to post out of your ass. This is HackerNews, not Reddit.

Can you give an example of these high-quality supplements? Otherwise folks just have to take you at your word that they exist.

[flagged]

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#244
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... Infowars had a supplements business?

Oh man, you're in for a treat. Look up some videos on youtube, the classic being John Oliver's 2017 piece; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyGq6cjcc3Q . He's adjacent to the newly mainstream right, yes, but he's been around for a long time as a more radical+fringe actor, and has all the baggage that goes along with that. A good portion (most?) of his money was made from selling vaguely anti-GMO and pro-masculinity pr…

And the Knowledge Fight podcast if you really, really wanna get into it. Almost 1000 episodes now. https://knowledgefight.com

Behind the bastards also has a few that are good summaries if you want something shorter, with the Knowledge Fight guys as guests.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#245
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.

"Being wrong" and "repeatedly defaming people" are quite different.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#247
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

[deleted]

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ends justify the means, in some circumstances. If you play fair against monsters, monsters win. > but the tools and methods used were entirely inappropriate to a liberal democracy, where you prevail with better arguments. I strongly disagree this is our operating environment, based on the evidence.

> If you play fair against monsters, monsters win. If you become a monster to fight the monster, the monster always wins!

As is part of the journey and story arc!

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#249
post #37

I'm very much not a fan of Q-anon and related subcultures, but the sandy-hook award of $1.5 billion is obviously ridiculous, and is clearly just a government/institutional exercise in dictatorial/systemic power. There is no possible way that someone ranting on the internet can cause 1.5 billion of emotional damage or whatever the claim was. In particular, the libel (and it should be libel, making claims that are not…

>There is no possible way that someone ranting on the internet can cause 1.5 billion of emotional damage I'd like to see someone quantify what a reasonable number would be and how they came to it. I served on a jury where we had to award similar damages. "Anyone got any ideas how to account for this?" I asked .... nobody had any good ones.

You cannot quantify it. IMHO emotional damage is not a thing, at least in terms of people merely saying things about you. Have you not heard 'sticks and stones...'?

If someone claims false facts about you, and is credible, and that then has a material impact on you, then sure, that might be something for the law.

Otherwise we'd be prosecuting every gossip.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#250
post #57

The current speculation by the right-o-sphere that Alex Jones is about to be appointed the Trump press secretary is apt for the moment where Trump seems to have made his nominations on the basis of how much they will disturb the left. It's hard to imagine anyone that could be more effective at achieving that than Jones.

I don’t think effective government is founded on the basis of lolz.

It's effective at disorientation and disbelief.
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