The Onion to Take over InfoWars • Hacker News Board

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#121

Post by z2 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

guzfip wrote: post #91

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant plans for the future: https://theonion.info/?p=1 > Such is the InfoWars I envision: An infinite virtual surface teeming with ads. Not just ads, but scams! Not just scams, but lies with no object, free radical misinformation, sentences and images so poorly thought out that they are unhealthy even to view for just a few seconds. The InfoWars of old was only the prototype for the hell I know we can build toget…

> A digital platform where, every day, visitors sacrifice themselves at altars of delusion and misery, their minds fully disintegrating on contact. Zuckerberg already did it.

No joke, I use Facebook every year or so to access the marketplace and at the time my feed was roughly half rage-bait, and the other half being what I can only describe as AI-generated almost-pornography. Both had thousands of what looked like genuinely real interactions per post, mostly from developing country users.

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#122

Post by SV_BubbleTime » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC

austin-cheney wrote: post #56

mikeodds wrote: post #25

Maybe I’m out of touch, but doesn’t a $1.4b dollar settlement for this seem rather… large?

It is absurdly large and deliberately so. First of all this was a class action suit representing 22 plaintiffs. Secondly, the number was large to punish the defendant for continuously disrespecting the count with bad repeated behavior. Third, there was no defense because the defendant failed to work with the court resulting in a summary judgment.

>deliberately so

I’m not entertained that the court is playing an unrealistic and hyberbolic game.

I know, I’m a weirdo that wants to see realism and pragmatism in the court systems even if the defendant is a real asshole.

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#123

Post by tsimionescu » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC

triceratops wrote: post #119

jklinger410 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a ruling in a civil court not a form of government prosecution? It would be more correct to say that your first amendment rights stop at defaming others.

The government didn't bring this civil suit. Ruling on civil disputes is the government's role. That's not what prosecution means.

This is an absurd line, and plainly wrong.

If I were to bring a civil suit against you because the comment above offended my sensibilities, it would be quickly thrown out of court because it is your first amendment right to say anything you like, with certain exceptions that the government recognizes as limitations of this right.

Even though this is a civil matter, it is still a judgement on government law. This is not some contract dispute where the parties are simply seeking arbitration, with no government involvement except as a "service provider" for this arbitration.

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#124

Post by websap » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

Once every infowars article and video is on the onion, they will instantly make sense. How long does it take to retrain foundational models and SEO to understand that those articles are absolutely trash?

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#125

Post by tnelsond4 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

Organizations love to run controlled opposition. Just came out that the Southern poverty law center has been funding the KKK of all things.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdal/pr/federal-grand-jury-char...

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#126

Post by SV_BubbleTime » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

solfox wrote: post #112

It seems strange to me that our laws allow someone to declare personal bankruptcy to avoid paying on liabilities, while somehow maintaining interests in other companies… resulting in that weird situation where another of his companies tries to buy the “bankrupt” company? (If you didn’t read the article, the only other bidder against the Onion was one of Alex’s own companies)

Jones is a grifter, but I almost admire his brazen attempts here. If he is successful in any way, he is doing a service to point out the flaws in the systems.

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#127

Post by kkkqkqkqkqlqlql » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

phendrenad2 wrote: post #9

A million dollars a year for... what? A gag that fans of infowars won't watch, and there aren't enough anti-fans to appreciate? It feels personal at this point.

Oh, that so sad, can someone please think of the fascist grifters?

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#128

Post by Forgeties79 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

vasco wrote: post #44

Traster wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with all silly internet block BS, simply reload the site and hit escape before the cookie banner loads.

Or just inspect element + press delete. In some cases you also need to then delete an extra gray overlay and re-enable scroll on the base html tag, but takes 30s

Seems like a lot of work to browse a site that makes a good joke once every month or so.

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#129

Post by chrisldgk » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

latexr wrote: post #38

Traster wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with all silly internet block BS, simply reload the site and hit escape before the cookie banner loads.

> reload the site and hit escape What exactly does that do? Which web browser? I’m on mobile right now, so can’t test.

I would suppose it interrupts the page load after streaming the HTML and before loading and/or executing the cookie banner‘s javascript, meaning the content is there but the cookie banner will never open.

Re: The Onion to Take over InfoWars

#130

Post by cogman10 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

brookst wrote: post #88

afavour wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re just reading polls and reacting accordingly. There’s no principle involved.

And they aren’t being objective and rational about the polls, they are funding and cherry-picking poll data that tells them to do what they want to do. There’s no principle, no strategy, no goal. We’re living in the political version of Cube , and just like the movie: it’s a headless blunder operating under the illusion of a master plan.

The only polls they care about is their sales numbers and their sponsor dollars.

It really doesn't matter how popular or unpopular a candidate is, what matters is if their listeners are still willing to overpay on snake oil. Or if their oil barrons are still giving them a few million dollars for whatever message they want to sell.

AJ is probably the worst in this space. One of the things leaked in his emails is if you give him $20k he'll gladly bring you on the show and talk about whatever it is you want to talk about and sell. You could probably get him to shill for a book about the benefits of communism.