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The Onion buys Infowars

nytimes.com

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Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#661

Post by vundercind »

ackbar03 wrote: post #214
plorg wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The auction included all of the InfoWars and several associated corporations' assets, including the studio and the supplements business. At one point the settlement administrator was trying to get Alex's Twitter handle. I believe he's been doing some half-ass scheming to create essentially the same company but in his parents' name, and I doubt he has a problem getting listeners back.

... Infowars had a supplements business?

The ads on some information-channels carry a lot of information about the audience, and so, about the channel.

Some are dominated by reverse mortgages, supplements, buy-gold ads, Franklin “mint”, and, if online, crypto scams.

This happens to be a convenient way to quickly tell when you’re headed deep into a particular part of Bullshit Country.

[edit] point is I find it unsurprising they had a supplement business. It’s probably the easiest of the above to break into.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#662

Post by aaron695 »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #625

In one sense this is funny, in another it's justice, but I think from a broader perspective this is just more of the same tit-for-tat nonsense that moves the needle in the wrong direction. My hypothesis is that the U.S. didn't become more divided because of moron sites like I.W. but rather because of our collective reaction to them. These groups are far easier to ignore when we stop trying to silence them.

[dead]

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#663

Post by jandrese »

qingcharles wrote: post #492
rs999gti wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alex Jones is such a big name and has other channels (x.com, Joe Rogan etc.) that he can easily build a similar site/business under a new domain name. Maybe but the judgement was for 1B USD. So any profits would probably be garnished away. Basically, lawfare was used to censor Alex Jones. I wonder if this is a case for the Supreme Court and First Amendment rights?

Lawfare? This is literally how defamation works. If someone said on the Internet said that rs999gti was a "tax-evading, pyramid-scheming, mullet-wearing, karaoke-ruining, ferret-hoarding, snake-oil-selling, cereal-with-water-eating, grammar-mangling, table-manner-less, engagement-ring-pawning, salad-dodging, traffic-cone-stealing, apology-dodger," and it wasn’t true, I think you’d probably like to sue them and take t…

"Lawfare" is when people break the law and are actually prosecuted for it even though they are rich and right wing and think they laws don't apply to them.

Alex Jones wasn't even subtle about it. He was getting judgements telling him to stop spouting blatant lies about victims of a mass shooting and he just doubled down on the lies. Repeatedly. The courts kept giving him more rope and he kept tying more nooses.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#664

Post by kabdib »

rs999gti wrote: post #509
qingcharles wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawfare? This is literally how defamation works. If someone said on the Internet said that rs999gti was a "tax-evading, pyramid-scheming, mullet-wearing, karaoke-ruining, ferret-hoarding, snake-oil-selling, cereal-with-water-eating, grammar-mangling, table-manner-less, engagement-ring-pawning, salad-dodging, traffic-cone-stealing, apology-dodger," and it wasn’t true, I think you’d probably like to sue them and take t…

> Lawfare? Yes the court's judgment is so high, 1B USD, that he cannot make money without it being garnished. How does he get back to work? I personally do not think anyone should lose their livelihood over speech, NOTE: I did not say free speech. What he did is reprehensible but not enough that he is basically black balled from making a living. Penalties yes, loss of livelihood no.

$1B is the amount it took to get him to stop. He could have stopped earlier, and had ample opportunity, but that was apparently his price.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#666

Post by tailrecursion »

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #432
dionian wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point

Since Musk's acquisition of Twitter, it has increasingly become a right wing echo chamber and place to promote conspiracy theories. And Alex Jones' InfoWars and Elon Musk's Twitter are both likely to show you advertisements for supplements of dubious effectiveness and other generally scammy products. So yeah, Jones fits right in there.

I take it that left wingers feel that "community notes" isn't effective or sufficient to combat right wing beliefs that are wrong?

The people on the right seem satisfied for now that they can "combat misinformation with more information". (That's a misquote by the way, I believe he said better information, not more. On second thought, he may have said it both ways.)

Has anyone discussed why the right believes this can work, and the left doesn't?

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#667

Post by fsckboy »

rootusrootus wrote: post #649
fsckboy wrote: post #647

[flagged]

Are you suggesting that everything Alex Jones says is supposed to be funny ? And we all just don't get the joke?

Joe Rogan, live, has Jamie research outlandish claims Alex Jones makes, and it turns out there are citations providing the basis for his claims. If you don't get a kick out of that, yes, you don't get it.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#668

Post by rootusrootus »

fsckboy wrote: post #667
rootusrootus wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you suggesting that everything Alex Jones says is supposed to be funny ? And we all just don't get the joke?

Joe Rogan, live, has Jamie research outlandish claims Alex Jones makes, and it turns out there are citations providing the basis for his claims. If you don't get a kick out of that, yes, you don't get it.

There are citations for the Sandy Hook crisis actor accusations?

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#669

Post by sixothree »

brabel wrote: post #435
mooreds wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market. And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice." Glorious.

That part hurt a little bit, recently had to start looking at family just like this.

[flagged]

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#670

Post by multjoy »

tightbookkeeper wrote: post #280
paddy_m wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a claim for $1.5B, they are going after all Alex Jones assets which are much less than $1.5B.

Don’t forget their many other successful lawsuits: - school administration - rifle manufacturer - the shooters mother (home insurance) - other journalists who wrote about the event I don’t know exactly what compensation they should get, but this does not seem like a healthy or sustainable way for our society to deal with tragedy.

A healthy & sustainable way would probably be to do something about school shootings in the only country where they happen on a regular basis.

In the absence of that, what else would you propose?

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