# Alex Jones... A Serious Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 27, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671 "2018-07-27T13:44:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/21 "2018-07-28T15:32:38Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > 1. He’s still pretty crazy. Perhaps. Perhaps not. All I know is that he’s a mean and despicable person who is willing to inflict pain & suffering on grieving people for his own profit. Case in point: [taunting the parents of Sandy Hook victims](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/us/politics/alex-jones-trump-sandy-hook.html). :mad: ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/22 "2018-07-28T16:43:22Z")
I’m less concerned with Alex Jones than with his followers. Like Edgar Welch, the pizza parlor gunman. I cannot comprehend the level of stupidity and insignificance a person must experience to actually buy into these lies. I keep hoping to find some kind of explanation that I can appreciate, and I keep on being disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/23 "2018-07-28T23:33:14Z")
My big question has always been why he isn’t continually being sued into poverty. Or at least restraining order. Case in point: his recent attacks on Robert Mueller. He accused Mueller of being a pedophile, then backed off that a bit and said Mueller just arranged encounters for pedophiles and protected them. How is that not actionable? I know the Sandy Hook parents are suing him, but there must be a dozen other cases that could potentially be actionable. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/24 "2018-07-29T14:35:43Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > My big question has always been why he isn’t continually being sued into poverty. Or at least restraining order. > > Case in point: his recent attacks on Robert Mueller. He accused Mueller of being a pedophile, then backed off that a bit and said Mueller just arranged encounters for pedophiles and protected them. > > How is that not actionable? I know the Sandy Hook parents are suing him, but there must be a dozen other cases that could potentially be actionable. I think it’s the old National Enquirer conundrum. Suing puts false accusations in the limelight, and the accused has access to legal help that could prolong the case indefinitely (and expensively). The “serious question” in the OP came up in the recent/ongoing David Icke thread. There are legions of such people infesting the Internet/public discourse (I see this all the time when checking out health/medical-related bizarreness), flaunting extreme and ridiculous conspiracy theories and overseeing evidently lucrative websites selling nonsensical opinions and products to help you survive the Toxic Vaccine Chemtrail Apocalypse. If they all were paranoid schizophrenics with out-of-control delusions they’d be living in poverty beneath an overpass. But they have enough business savvy to market their loony beliefs to the less fortunate multitudes, and that’s all that counts. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/25 "2018-07-29T14:50:43Z")
> [@survinga](#): > > I’m reminded of a 20th century dictator who said that the big lie needs to be repeated over and over. If you say it enough, people will believe it. I think people like Jones understand that. Actually, it was one of his chief henchmen that said that. The big guy just nodded sagely. ---
**Author:** ![Barack\_Obama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Barack\_Obama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barack_Obama)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/26 "2018-07-29T21:13:03Z")
Alex Jones doesn’t believe what he says entirely, often hes using very vague analogies and doesn’t have the mental capacity or vocabulary to express himself. First and foremost he’s just trying to feed his family, he knows the shit he shot at says is often bullshit. There is a good bit he also believes in. His character projects emotionally invested conspiracies that people either A) find hilarious and take politics as a troll/game or B) are stupid enough Takeo believe everything he says, or C) belief in half of what he says, and understanding ofsatirical or plain bullshit trolls. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/27 "2018-07-29T23:09:39Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > How is that not actionable? I know the Sandy Hook parents are suing him, but there must be a dozen other cases that could potentially be actionable. IANAL, but here’s what I can tell: 1. Mueller faces [extra hurdles](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/proving-fault-actual-malice-and-negligence) as a public figure pursuing a defamation case. As to one of those hurdles, proving **actual malice** , the DMLP points out > [@](#): > > this is a very difficult standard for a plaintiff to establish. Indeed, in only a handful of cases over the last decades have plaintiffs been successful in establishing the requisite actual malice to prove defamation. 1. Mueller would also have to prove that Jones’s statements could **reasonably be taken as statements of fact**. Ken White from Popehat (who’s [really entertaining](https://www.popehat.com/2013/09/26/so-youve-been-threatened-with-a-defamation-suit) on defamation/speech cases) [points out](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-white-alex-jones-character-20170419-story.html) that DJ Trump got a defamation case against _him_ thrown out because the judge bought the argument that reasonable people wouldn’t take his defamatory Tweet seriously – in part **because he’s a troll and a bullshitter** on Twitter all the time, basically. (Also because it was a passing and vague statement, yadda yadda.) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/28 "2018-07-30T12:48:11Z")
> [@Barack\_Obama](#): > > Alex Jones doesn’t believe what he says entirely… sure he does, but he also believes the opposite. The ability of people to believe contradictory things, or to abandon and then re-embrace belief as convenience dictates, is truly remarkable. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671/29 "2018-07-31T03:17:09Z")
[Today, he says he’s a journalist.](https://apnews.com/ce04388309ee44249a0f9461d34bef5f/Infowars-host-Alex-Jones-moves-to-dismiss-Sandy-Hook-lawsuit) A journalist who’s “just asking questions.” > [@](#): > > In written arguments filed Friday, the right-wing radio host moved to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by the families of some of the 26 people killed in the Connecticut shooting. Jones acknowledged that he had called the shooting a hoax, but said he now believes it happened. > > “Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein relied on allegations from ‘Deep Throat’ to link the Nixon Administration to the Watergate break-in,” his lawyers wrote in filing for a dismissal. “Such journalism, questioning official narratives, would be chilled if reporters were subject to liability if they turned out to be wrong,” > [@](#): > > Jones acknowledged allowing Halbig and others to question the shooting on his show, but said he has a constitutional right to do that. > > “To stifle the press (by making them liable for merely interviewing people who have strange theories) will simply turn this human tragedy into a Constitutional one,” his attorneys wrote. Is there a way to make the emojis bigger? I need a bigger :rolleyes: for this one. As one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys said > [@](#): > > “The First Amendment simply does not protect false statements about the parents of one of the worst tragedies in our nation’s history,” said Bill Bloss, an attorney who represents the families. “Any effort by any of the defendants to avoid responsibility for the harm that they have inflicted will be unsuccessful.” So far Mr. Jones does not have a good track record in court; I can’t wait to see how this one turns out! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-a-serious-question/818671.md?page=1)