George Graham

A Farewell to Alarms?

 

Could this really be goodbye for Alex Jones? The conspiracy theorist has just been banned by Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify.

And my response is:

What took you guys so long?

Alex Jones is a bad joke. A dangerous bad joke. He is the kind of hazard  Oliver Wendell Holmes obviously meant when he said our First Amendment rights don’t cover falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater.

The operative word here is “falsely.”

Sadly, a lot of people can’t recognize a lie even when it’s so outlandish it couldn’t possibly be true.

Jones once argued, for example, that Michelle Obama is a man because of her broad shoulders. He warned that an alien force had invaded Earth. And he claimed “chemical warfare” is making people become homosexual.

Yet there are folks who believe him. Really.

Nothing is too sacred for him to smear. He even called the Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.

Jones’ ex-wife, Kelly, says his show isn’t an act. He’s even worse at home, she said. She describes him as “a really unhappy, disturbed person.”

Naturally,Jones is a Trump favorite. You know what they say about birds of a feather.

In the Age of Trump, the Infowars host has risen to national prominence.

Recently, for example, Jones said Trump had chosen him to blow the whistle on special counsel Mueller’s cover-up of a vast Nine-Eleven conspiracy involving the Saudis, the Bushes and the Clintons.

But his blatant disregard for reality has finally captured the attention of social media platforms. They’re saying they’ve had enough.

As you might expect, Jones’ allies in the right-wing echo chamber are rallying to his defense. But I suspect they’re voices crying in the wilderness.

They, too, might soon be shunned by reputable media outlets.

I think the public might finally be catching on. The end of the conspiracy-theory industry could be at hand.

Could the Fall of Trump be next?

An example of fake news

More crazy stuff

What Kelly Jones said

The real Alex Jones story

The far right responds

Limiting free speech

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com