Friday, December 03, 2021

Settlement

 Alex Jones would like you to hear his side of things. The Free Speech side of things. It makes sense that a man who has bludgeoned the Constitution in every way imaginable would come slithering back to the First Amendment for salvation. His conspiracy laden world view has been sprayed across the country in a way that might best be described as "liberally," but that word does not seem to apply here. 

A Connecticut judge ruled this past month that Jones was liable by default in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Massacre. The Sandy Hook Massacre that occurred in 2012. The one that Alex Jones began describing way back then as "a hoax." The parents of the children who were shot and killed that day would beg to differ. They would also beg to have Alex Jones and his minions to shut up. If you know anything about Alex Jones, you know how that plea might be ignored. He is far too busy speaking freely to hear anyone else in the room. Listening is not one of the man's strong points. 

If you have filed Sandy Hook away with so many other mass shootings over the past few decades, remember that twenty of the twenty-six victims were small children. First graders between the ages of six and seven. It was Alex Jones' assertion that this was all a made up "false flag" event, created by those who might attempt to undermine the insane vision he holds of the world. It's not the maniacs with guns we should be worrying about, it's the Clintons and the Obamas. He clamed that the parents who appeared on the scene of the murder of their children were "crisis actors," all a part of some bizarre theater presentation designed to take our freedom away from us. By "freedom," of course, he means "guns." 

There is not currently a statute on the books that suggests an appropriate penalty for being a soul-sucking leech on the belly of society. If there was, there would be a whole lot more lawsuits clogging up an already overstuffed legal system. The name of Alex Jones' podcast is Infowars, which might as well be Realitywars since the ongoing battle seems to be between him and the world in which we all live. Is he free to spin his yarns to those who might listen? From inside his own house, or on a busy street corner, but not with a worldwide web of a megaphone that shoves his rants into the faces of rational folks, some of whom are grieving parents. Once again we find ourselves confronted with an arsonist who insists that he is entitled to yell "fire" in a crowded movie house. 

I suggest taping his mouth shut and taking away his matches. 

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