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At long last, InfoWars is ours

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Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#231

Post by traderj0e »

kube-system wrote: post #228
traderj0e wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And? Most grifters believe their own grift; it's confirmation bias.

It's a conflict of interest that anyone serious would avoid. No I don't think he believes it, I think he wants to be famous and sell things.

And I don't think most grifters believe their own grift. Those guys selling NFTs obviously didn't believe their own grift enough to hold them instead. I knew some personally.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#232

Post by jasonmp85 »

throwawayq3423 wrote: post #184
kvuj wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right up with the crypto scam that followed it. Great. In case you didn't know, the creators of Birds aren't real rug pulled and stole millions with their crypto coin.

I was unaware of that, disappointing.

[dead]

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#234

Post by jancsika »

jimt1234 wrote: post #44
jmward01 wrote: post #6

So they are now setting the content on infowars.com? Honestly, I can't tell since everything on that site looks so fake it isn't believable. The onion transition may be hard to detect.

I visited with my family in rural Missouri recently. Alex Jones and InfoWars is gospel to them. I was amazed at how many times cited him as an authority on various topics. I thought they were joking, but apparently, Obama made a promise with his father before his passing that he would destroy the United States. Oh, and of course, Obama is Satan, and Trump was sent by God to protect us all. Of course.

It's your duty as a Hacker News to subtly introduce the Free Software Foundation and/or GNU into a conversation with them.

When they ask about it, throw a bunch of breathless praise on Stallman hacking the laser printer, building an OS from scratch, predicting DRM, fighting against cellphone surveillance, etc.

Tell them you'll send them a link. Then link them to the Alex Jones interview with Richard Stallman. (It's a pretty good interview, btw.)

It's like hiding broccoli in a chocolate bar they were going to eat anyway.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#235

Post by jimt1234 »

dfxm12 wrote: post #190
jimt1234 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited with my family in rural Missouri recently. Alex Jones and InfoWars is gospel to them. I was amazed at how many times cited him as an authority on various topics. I thought they were joking, but apparently, Obama made a promise with his father before his passing that he would destroy the United States. Oh, and of course, Obama is Satan, and Trump was sent by God to protect us all. Of course.

As of even more recently, Jones believes Trump is under demonic influences.

Obama got to Trump now, too?! LOL

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#236

Post by macintux »

traderj0e wrote: post #231
kube-system wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And? Most grifters believe their own grift; it's confirmation bias.

It's a conflict of interest that anyone serious would avoid. No I don't think he believes it, I think he wants to be famous and sell things. And I don't think most grifters believe their own grift. Those guys selling NFTs obviously didn't believe their own grift enough to hold them instead. I knew some personally.

Let me get this straight: he accused grieving families of lying about their children's deaths, and put a target on their backs, to sell stuff...and he didn't believe his own bullshit?

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#238

Post by tart-lemonade »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #213
micromacrofoot wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

those judgements should be higher too I think this one was high because alex jones harassed parents of murdered children to the point where they had to move out of the town their children were buried in. These people were harassed to the point of being afraid to visit the graves of their children. Sometimes examples need to be set in egregious cases.

>Sometimes examples need to be set in egregious cases. And if he had been fined $35 million dollars, the example would have been set, they'd have been paid, and he'd have spent the next 20 years figuring out how much that award fucked him when he couldn't be insured for anything, when no one would touch him for any sort of gig worth having. He might have ended up destitute. But if you do the Dr. Evil "1 billion dolla…

> He might have ended up destitute. But if you do the Dr. Evil "1 billion dollars!" thing, which he could never actually pay, the plaintiffs get nothing for all their misery, and the money he does hide in offshore accounts is there for him to loaf around on forever. Why is this so counterintuitive for everyone?

He was busy hiding millions of dollars in assets well before the judgements were handed down [0]. He fraudulently declared bankruptcy in multiple shell companies to try and delay the proceedings [1]. He made no secret of the fact that he was going to do everything in his power to avoid giving a single dime to the Sandy Hook families, regardless of the outcome. He had known for years that he was lying, his own staff had repeatedly raised objections to his behavior in writing, and if the award was $35 million, that's only a few year's profits for him to sacrifice. For reference, his personal expenses are $100k/mo [2] and his previous salary was $1.4 million/yr [3]. On Infowars' best days, they would rake in $800k in profit [4]. Sure, those $800k days weren't super often, but they are still a cartoonishly profitable business by every measure. $35m would not be a real punishment.

It should also be noted that $1.4b is the combined amount for all of the plaintiffs, not just one person. And this isn't an isolated incident; he's been defaming people his entire career, and every time he got a small judgement or was only required to apologize, he just went on to defame other people [5], and all the times he didn't get sued he never even apologized. He only cares about money, so that's how you send a message to him.

Edit: I completely forgot to mention that the Sandy Hook families did offer to settle: $85 million paid over 10 years [6]. Jones countered with $55 million [7]. If Jones and his companies could afford $5.5m/yr, that says a lot about the profitability of the operation and the inadequacy of $35m.

[0]: https://apnews.com/article/business-alex-jones-austin-texas-...

[1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61142905

[2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64644080

[3]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-19/alex-jone...

[4]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alex-jones-testifies-in-sandy...

[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Jones#Litigation

[6]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/28/alex-jones-...

[7]: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alex-jones-offers-to-pay-sand...

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#239

Post by kypro »

BryantD wrote: post #206
kypro wrote: post #182

Please can someone correct my opinion on this because I'm sure I'm missing something. I find it crazy that in the US you can't take an opinion on something without risking being bankrupted because that thing you said is later proven untrue and that it hurt someone's feelings – feeling which in the US have a monetary value of billions apparently. I agree that the media should be evidence based and it's bad when the me…

The key element you’re missing is that the lawsuit accused Alex Jones of knowing that he was lying. I.e., it’s not that he was speculating — it’s that he knew he wasn’t telling the truth. To quote Jones: “We’ve clearly got people where it’s actors playing different parts of different people. I’ve looked at it and undoubtedly there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying and they…

> That isn’t even phrased as a “what if” — it’s asserting that Sandy Hook was staged. It’s framed as a truth, not a possibility, and the jury found that Alex Jones knew it wasn’t true when he was saying it.

I think the deliberate maliciousness of it should bare more punishment, but I still think $1B is extremely unreasonable.

It's also absurd to me that a judge should have the right to make up an arbitrarily big number as a means to inflect a secondary punishment. $1 million is discouragement, $1 billion is an attempt to destroy the business and his life. While I have no sympathy for Jones, I still find this problematic if what you're saying is true.

Re: At long last, InfoWars is ours

#240

Post by Anthony-G »

troped2 wrote: post #98
fmbb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t believe this. I saw OP and went to infowars dot com to have a look. I scrolled a bit, clicked some links, looked at the store, had a good laugh at the comedy of this ironic site. Now you’re telling me the site is not a joke from The Onion? Reality is stranger than fiction.

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"

Also:

> Trump Responds To Controversial Image Of Himself As Jesus, Says It Actually Depicted Him As A Doctor & Slams “Fake News” For The Misinterpretation

Had I not already heard this story via the mainstream media on this side of the Atlantic, this could easily be another satirical headline. With Trump as President, Poe’s law now covers reporting on facts – not just expressions of opinion.

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