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At long last, InfoWars is ours

theonion.com

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Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#171

Post by traderj0e »

kube-system wrote: post #34
guywithahat wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say he's more popular than ever, I think his peak popularity was during his youtube time. What is true is he was replaced by people who are decisively worse. I'm not sure Alex was really that bad, he was a performative comedian who complained about big government projects. There are a lot of properly racist people who are finding large audiences on tiktok/instagram/X with young people and seem to be strict…

There are people who laugh at Alex, but his views are genuinely held.

Genuinely held by him? I remember seeing this guy 10+ years ago on YT and thought he's simply trying to sell water filters by scaring people.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#172

Post by traderj0e »

tptacek wrote: post #90
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reasonable by what metric? I've seen judgements that are tiny fractions of this for corporate crimes that affects hundreds or thousands of people. Is it reasonable because Alex Jones can afford it (hint: he can't, not even if he wasn't hiding his money)? This judgement ends up being more akin to punishing him by forcing him off of his platform, which is actually unconstitutional even for a shitbag like him.

When corporations are sued, they tend to take the lawsuits seriously, which is probably a big factor in why their outcomes are so different than Jones'.

Also idk what corporation has gone out of its way to slander innocent families

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#173

Post by traderj0e »

wat10000 wrote: post #168
Shog9 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The defense - including Jones himself - also did a very poor job, so it's debatable whether anyone at all wanted a different outcome.

That's understating things rather substantially. He ignored court orders. He continued to defame the plaintiffs during the trial , including a statement on air that one of the plaintiff's death by suicide was actually a murder and part of the conspiracy. If you were sued and your objective was to lose as badly as possible and get as harsh a judgment as possible, it would look a lot like what Jones did here.

That might have been his objective really. All that talk about the govt being after us for years, and now he can point to them forcing him to sell everything off, while he still maintains the same fanbase. But what can they do, he really deserved the judgement.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#174

Post by wyldfire »

thrance wrote: post #156
exogeny wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there is an acceptable third option between "the globalists winning" and "it is OK for a single media outlet to wage a war on the grieving parents of the victims of a mass murder"?

My comment was just a silly joke, reusing some of Jones phrasing. I never fully grasped who "the globalists" were in his mind, and why they were seemingly behind everything he dislikes, but I always found if funny. I'm just happy he lost his platform, and I find the Onion's piece rather amusing. I thought I could add to it with this dumb joke but I forgot about the fact that Jones still has a sizeable following, and…

Poe's Law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#175

Post by ocdtrekkie »

busterarm wrote: post #147
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bear in mind buying it to ruin it is a very real public service. Alex Jones was hoping a conservative ally would buy it and then just continue to let him do what he wants. Jokes aside, The Onion is basically spending a giant pile of money to burn the website down.

I remember when The KLF burned a million quid. They were being internally consistent. It was artistically relevant. Most people thought they were insane. Bill Drummond wrote about how it strained his relationship with his kids. You can tell that he regrets it. Personally I think a million bucks to lease a domain name for a year is a really terrible business decision. You might be able to argue that it's going to vict…

I get the impression that beyond the money from the sale, the victims would very much like Alex Jones control of InfoWars to end. This accomplishes both of those things. I don't generally find The Onion that funny, and probably will never visit the new InfoWars, but I'm eternally grateful that they were willing to step in and do this. Because someone had to. A "good business decision" is to let Alex run his show if you buy the brand, but that's still a win for him.

Not only would another owner likely allow Alex Jones to continue to operate, but The Onion can truly salt the earth around Alex Jones' business. If they own the InfoWars trademarks... if they own The Alex Jones Show as a trademark? They can potentially shut down Alex Jones' future works if they violate InfoWars' trademarks and intellectual property. They can sue him if he says something defamatory about the new InfoWars. One of the perks here is that The Onion is well-versed in free speech rights, intellectual property rights, and trademark law. They already have lawyers good at this stuff.

The Onion can be a truly significant thorn in Jones' side, the way most other outcomes for this could not. I'm guessing the new site won't be that funny, but thankfully I don't really care about the "art".

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#176

Post by like_any_other »

logifail wrote: post #131
troped2 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite headlines: "Video: ‘Homophobic’ 6-Week-Old Baby Cries After Gay Dad Tells Him ‘There Is No Mama’" "UK Approves Bills To Remove Criminal Penalties For Women Who Commit Their Own Abortions" "Nigerian Photographed Killing Cat And Trying To Cook It In Front Of Children’s Playground In Italy"

> 6-Week-Old Baby I appreciate this story appears to be all about the rage-bate headlines, but I don't believe that either six-week old babies say "Mama" (with purpose) or that a baby that age would be capable of responding in the way described to an adult saying "there is no Mama". It doesn't work like that at that age. [Source: have three kids]

Source: the video: https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/2045335697893269640

Edit: but it is likely the baby is older than 6 weeks in that video - this seems to be the source of confusion (read carefully - the 6-week-old video was a different, older video):

In December, when Texson was 6 weeks old, he shared a video with the text overlay “6 week old homophobic baby,” which was viewed more than 36 million times. In that video, Texson smiles in response to being told he has a sister, a brother and puppies but frowns when McAnally says that he has two dads. In the most recent video McAnally has shared, Texson laughs and says the sound “ma ma ma,” when asked if he wants “dada or pop.” Later on, in the video, he cries and looks frustrated." - https://www.newsweek.com/entertainment/shane-mcanally-video-...

Of course, getting stuck on if they got the age of the baby wrong is throwing out the baby with the bathwater - the main thrust of the story is true.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#177

Post by traderj0e »

ro_bit wrote: post #128
traderj0e wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Onion's humor is like that drawing of the angry crying guy wearing a laughing face mask. It's only "funny" if you're pissed off about something.

Finally, wojak invocation on HN

Proud to be part of this historic moment, took until 2026 but better late than never

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#179

Post by andrewflnr »

pogue wrote: post #9

Seems like it's still not theirs until a judge signs off on it. That sale was scuttled by a bankruptcy court. Now, The Onion has re-emerged with a new plan: licensing the website from Gregory Milligan, the court-appointed manager of the site. On Monday, Mr. Milligan asked Maya Guerra Gamble, a judge in Texas’s Travis County District Court overseeing the disposition of Infowars, to approve that licensing agreement in…

> Nothing can stop us now that we’re in charge of a website.

Somehow I don't think the confidence is meant to be taken at exactly face value.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#180

Post by shagie »

traderj0e wrote: post #146
DonHopkins wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

> Idk what the Sandy Hook shooting has to do with this, the Onion has been around for much longer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...

> 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

They've reprinted / reposted that article 39 times since 2014 (Sandy Hook was in 2012)

Gun violence is something that the editorial board of The Onion feels strongly about.

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