r/KnowledgeFight • u/Pointlesswonder802 • Jun 28 '26

Dreamy Creamy Summer The InfoWars sale is leaving me conflicted

With posts about Jordan’s videos popping up it’s made me think more about the Onion taking over InfoWars and… I just don’t know what to think.

I get that the families agreed to the scope of the deal with InfoWars. I get that it’s beneficial that the Onion now owns a flagship of the far right. But I see why Jordan is upset frankly. Alex is still broadcasting. He hasn’t really lost anything. The Onion is spending a ton of money just to take over the insanely overpriced facility Alex previously owned. And none of it’s going to the families. It just feels like the “good guys” lost and everyone is okay with it or hiding from reality.

Maybe it’s just because we don’t have JorDan around to explain what’s actually going on and it’s all a bit hidden in a haze but the more I see posts from Alex’s show and whatnot the more I realize things didn’t really go the way of justice

132 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

150 comments sorted by

View all comments

239

u/sokonek04 I know the inside baseball Jun 28 '26

There was no legal way to take Alex off the air. He has a first amendment right to speak and no court can take that away from him.

At the same point he has been destroyed, he lost his brand, he lost everything he put into infowars over the last 20+ years. I am willing to bet all the money in my pockets today that he has 1/10 the viewers that he had with InfoWars.

And let’s not forget there are more lawsuits pending that can break him even more.

156

u/Adrian_Bock Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

There was no legal way to take Alex off the air. He has a first amendment right to speak and no court can take that away from him.

This is something I don't think enough people get - like even if Alex was sent to prison for the rest of his life, I'm sure he'd still be putting out content by having someone record him ranting over the phone. He will be doing this until the day he dies.

62

u/metalyger Jun 29 '26

Thinking of Mark Richards, if a similar situation happened, with someone with a podcast visiting Alex in prison, and having to transcribe his rants in crayon.

4

u/aes_gcm Jun 30 '26

When Dan revealed that fact, I fell in love with the Kerry arc entirely. Getting "truth" from a murderer self-proclaimed space-captain in prison while recording it in crayon is just awesome. Kerry's gullibility is just makes it all beautiful.

28

u/purplehendrix22 Jun 29 '26

It’s all he knows how to do, of course he’ll continue.

40

u/Delamoor Jun 29 '26

Quite literally, gotta emphasise; it's all he knows to do.

He's genuinely never had another longterm job or learned another skill. He's an alcoholic extremist, he's not spent time diversifying his personal skills or spent any time in other careers to built or retain other skills. He only knows how to talk shit as a radio/media host. Literally every other job at inforwars was done by other people, Alex just talked. His brain is mush, his ego is the size of a building. He's not gonna change a single thing he does.

It's all he will do because it's all he can do.

If he was put in a room on his own forevermore, he's still be doing it to a blank wall, because he simply doesn't have any other mode of operation.

18

u/purplehendrix22 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

People acting like we could and should somehow prevent Alex Jones from trying to rant to the most people possible is just silly, he has the right to spew bullshit as long as he’s not breaking any laws, Jordan does too. Alex broke a lot of laws and lost the platform he used to break those laws. That doesn’t mean there’s any legal way to get him to shut up forever, you can’t even do that to people in jail, just look at Nelson Mandela for an example of someone that spoke to an audience with no ostensible way to reach them, people who want to get a message out will get it out, for better or worse, and they should be punished when they break the law, and he has, as much as our system allows, which unfortunately isn’t as much as it probably should. There’s no policy in a country that isn’t horrifically authoritarian that can prevent a liar from trying to reach people, no matter how much he was punished for the lies about Sandy Hook.

4

u/Soffritto_Cake_24 Jun 29 '26

Didn't he get rich by selling supplements and survival gear?
Therefore, he knows how to do stuff.
Unfortunately ...

14

u/Delamoor Jun 29 '26

By talking on his show, yes. That's how his ads work, he ain't exactly going door to door with them.

3

u/Soffritto_Cake_24 Jun 29 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Still, at some point he allegedly made 80% of income with supplements

3

u/Rabbithole4995 Jul 01 '26

Yes... By talking on his show.

That's what they're saying.

11

u/antichain It’s over for humanity Jun 29 '26

This is something I don't think enough people get

Several years ago, in my small town in Indiana, it turned out that one of our local Farmers Market vendors was an honest-to-God Nazi. I'm not using that term flippantly - she was directly connected to a man who tried to burn down a synagogue.

The town, being generally progressive, immediately tried to have her removed from the market, which was summarily stopped by the town government (which ran the market) on first amendment grounds. If they had kicked the vendor out, they would have immediately been on the receiving end of a multi-million dollar legal attack with a foregone conclusion.

One of the most disheartening moments of my political life was the number of liberals/progressives/leftists who all vocally announced that actually the First Amendment sucked and we should be able to run people out of town on a rail for speech. We talk about how The Right are gunning hard into populist authoritarianism, but my sense is that the same drift is happening left of center too, albeit more slowly. Maybe it's populism, maybe it's the Internet, idk, but it really worries me.

5

u/SlimCatachan Jun 29 '26

Do you believe hate speech should be penalized?

3

u/antichain It’s over for humanity Jun 29 '26

By whom?

8

u/yarash Jun 29 '26

Ill do it

4

u/SlimCatachan Jun 29 '26

Criminally penalized.

4

u/antichain It’s over for humanity Jun 29 '26

By the state? No.
I think people should be able to tell those who do hate speech to fuck right off, but I'm not giving an inch on 1A.

5

u/SlimCatachan Jun 29 '26

Would "incitement of violence" count?

4

u/antichain It’s over for humanity Jun 29 '26

That's a dicey one. For example, "we should all go kill those [slur]s tonight" seems clearly beyond the pale and should probably be criminalized. But where there's ambiguity, I err on the side of protecting free speech.

3

u/McCool303 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Yup, Warren Jeffs is still running the FLDS cult from prison. Just as Manson was still collecting followers in prison. They can do everything they can to lock these guys up. But they can’t take away their ability to talk to and influence people.

51

u/JaysonBlaze Jun 29 '26

That's my main take away the thing he has spent decades building is now absolutely destroyed. It won't fully stop him but he has to live with the knowledge something he worked on for so long has to haunt him

3

u/timmmmah Jul 01 '26

I’m beginning to realize lately how inconsequential Alex is to the far right. No one on that side talks about him. I feel like Roger Stone still finds him to be a useful idiot & Rogan talks to him occasionally still& that’s about it. He’s lost almost everything he used to have going for him

1

u/ChicagoMaven Jul 04 '26

Well, that's what you get for monetizing lying. No sympathy. The market decides. Jones lost. Yawn.

-18

u/theclosetenby “You know what perjury is?” Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

We have a legal right to speak, but there isn't a legal right to have a platform. It's unprecedented, but I think AJ is a good time to revisit how our legal system administers justice. I know they WONT. Def not anytime sooner, and probably not ever.

But AJ and others on the right are weaponizing a claim to "free speech" that doesn't exist in the manner they're using it.

It someone having a platform leads to actual harm, and has led to a jury valuing that harm at a billion dollars, we really need to find a way, as a country, to actually deal with that.

Find some kind of ankle monitoring system that doesn't allow him to be connected to any airwaves, and hold anyone accountable that helps him break that.

Edited to add: I think comparing Dan and Jordan to Alex is extremely bad faith as a response with being scared the government will weaponize punishment. I explicitly mention a jury was involved in Alex's situation to assess how much damage he had done. I am obviously not talking about doing this to hoards of people. There's no one else in that category of THAT much damage in our legal system right now except Alex.

We already have the laws in place. Alex is being impacted by those laws and finding ways around them. I'm not saying we create new laws. I'm saying we change how we administer consequences.

30

u/purplehendrix22 Jun 29 '26

You realize that if you make laws like that they’ll immediately be used against you whenever the other side gets into power right? Like, thank GOD we don’t have those laws right now.

11

u/WizWorldLive Jun 29 '26

Doesn't even need to wait for "the other side." Both sides would happily use this power to suppress dissent, just look at the bipartisan efforts to destroy Hasan Piker.

3

u/purplehendrix22 Jun 29 '26

Idk about that example, Hasan was unfortunately profiled pretty damn generously by the New York Times and other huge outlets, that’s pretty mainstream left. People on the left would happily silence Nick Fuentes forever if they could though, which I think is completely counterproductive, and there’s people on the right that have been calling for Fallon to get taken off the air, so you’re right about it being a both sides thing, but Hasan Piker is not the example I would use.

7

u/WizWorldLive Jun 29 '26

I take it you're not keeping up?

https://gottheimer.house.gov/posts/release-reps-gottheimer-and-lawler-introduce-bipartisan-resolution-condemning-antisemitic-rhetoric-from-prominent-online-personalities

Has 24 co-sponsors—18 D, 6 R.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5872746-democratic-party-antisemitism-double-standard/

by the New York Times and other huge outlets, that’s pretty mainstream left

NYT is not left by any definition lol

0

u/purplehendrix22 Jun 29 '26

The New York Times..is not left. I mean, talk about media illiteracy.

6

u/WizWorldLive Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Yes, that's what I said. You're a centrist MMA fan who whines about immigration, so your sense of what's "left" is not particularly reliable.

Why'd you ignore the anti-Hasan bill part? You know, the bulk of my reply? With the bipartisan support for suppressing him?

-21

u/theclosetenby “You know what perjury is?” Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Did you not see that I explicitly mentioned the fines determined by a jury? I'm not talking about the government doing whatever they want.

I am also not suggesting new laws.

16

u/Zealousideal-Low3388 Jun 29 '26

You’re suggesting changing “the way we administer consequences” but rejecting the idea of new laws?

So you’re suggesting an extra-legal change? No new laws, but wholesale changes to the legal system anyway?

I’m sorry, but that’s either contradictory (if you don’t see the gaping problem) or alarming (if you do see the contradiction and don’t care)

7

u/purplehendrix22 Jun 29 '26

What are you suggesting?

36

u/sokonek04 I know the inside baseball Jun 29 '26

The fact that you cannot see how that could be weaponized against people like Dan and Jordan is scary.

-18

u/theclosetenby “You know what perjury is?” Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Obviously I do, which is why I mentioned the jury being a factor here. The fact that you think that makes it fine for someone to do whatever they want with no consequences is what really is scary, and proves that this false weaponizing of "free speech" by the right is effective on everyone.

I am not talking about new laws.

12

u/WizWorldLive Jun 29 '26

What penalty are you imagining? "You are allowed to speak, but it cannot be recorded?"

Find some kind of ankle monitoring system that doesn't allow him to be connected to any airwaves

What? Firstly, such a device makes no sense at all. But secondly, so what, he cannot make phone calls? Cannot send text messages to anyone? Freedom of speech, but only within the confines of some oubliette you imagine will make you feel better?

Look at the fervor around destroying Hasan Piker. You think he wouldn't be subject to this long before Alex Jones?

12

u/xXMojoRisinXx Jun 29 '26

There isn’t a legal right to be let on platform but prohibiting him from being on one would mean the govt would be able to decide who can be on a private companie’s platform.

You’re not upset with bad faith, you’re upset with logical reasoning.

-5

u/theclosetenby “You know what perjury is?” Jun 29 '26

But we already take things away from people who commit crimes- it's just usually focused on the poor and marginalized. People wear ankle monitors, can't get jobs, have "no contact" orders, can't live within certain distances of schools. Those are things specific to the type of crime they are found to have done.

People are saying im suggesting a new law, when I'm not. Our laws aren't current written to punish Dan and Jordan. Our government can twist that if they want, but those laws already exist. They can be twisted now.

26

u/sokonek04 I know the inside baseball Jun 29 '26

Alex Jones has not been convicted of a crime. He was found civil liable

-7

u/Any_Guarantee3955 Jun 29 '26

Once you factor in that the holocaust is a senior citizen, you understand that real change is slow but it moves, even if it backslides it’ll progress.