You know there’s an issue when you’ve been banned by a place that allows billions, with a “b,” to congregate.
Last month, Facebook banned Alex Jones, the Austin-based extreme right conspiracy theorist, who President Trump has called “amazing,” for violating its terms of use.
Now Jones is being accused of sending child porn in emailed you documents to an attorney for a victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Mass. Jones has said that massacre was a hoax, put on by actors.
“It is worth noting that if the Jones defendants had engaged in even minimal due diligence and actually reviewed the materials before production, they would have found the images themselves,” the lawyers for the families who sued Jones said in a court filing.
The attorney alerted the FBI of the child pornography. Jones said on his radio show he believes he’s being set up.
Of course he does. He’s a well-known conspiracy theorist.
Why this matters
It’s the first step to cleansing our corrosive conversation and getting people like Jones off the air. And in jail if need be.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
Texas Monthly gave Jones its most recent Bum Steer of the Year award because “the radio host dragged our democracy into the same sewer he crawled out of so many years ago.” He has “tapped into a disturbing darkness creeping into the national zeitgeist,” the magazine wrote.
Liberals and non-political people can easily shrug Jones’ conspiracies and sickness off. But it’s his fake news and boiling rage that is helping provide rocket fuel to Trump and Trumpland.
As the Southern Poverty Law Center notes, Jones “may be the one with the most far-reaching influence in the nation’s history…To many, Jones is a bad joke. But the sad reality is that he has millions of followers who listen to his radio show, watch his “documentaries” and read his websites…”
