The Antics of Alex Jones

[dada]

Wow, I can barely scroll on that zerohedge, it's so full of ads. Popups trying to talk to me and everything. So much trash. Reminds me of those tech n gadget world websites, or the surfers paradise sites where the content is the advertising and vice-versa.

I gather zerohedge sees things differently than I do? Am I wrong in saying the zerohedge point was making a prediction, smugly in tone, that shutting down Jones is going to backfire?

Well, whatever the zerohedge point, I'm not too worried. This is the fickle internet, afterall.

It's like I was saying: 350k views for Jones this week. A spike in viewers, due to the attraction of high drama. 100k curiosity seekers at the crucifixion, savvy.

I think it's a small price to pay. Seriously, the guy is agitating for war, now, plain as can be. Where do we draw the line? This has gone beyond yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre. And that's the baseline we usually work from. So.

I know, Chomsky supports the nazi's right to say whatever, he'll even sign petitions supporting a holocaust denier's right to deny the holocaust. I get that. Free speech.

Agitating for war, coaxing nuts out of their shells to wreak havoc on innocents, sorry, I just can't support that. It just doesn't strike me as free speech, is all. I'm not saying I'm right, I know it's just my opinion. I think we have enough to worry about with the fbi stirring up and protecting the crazy shooty types, without having to worry about Jones-fueled fans, on top of all that.

Maybe that's not why they're going after Jones, I don't know. Probably doing it for some reason that I wouldn't care for that just happens to run parallel with my own reasoning.

My reasoning is much worse, you should all be glad I'm not in charge! haha. I say shut it all down, d-day in troll town. I know WR sees something worth keeping around in the chans. I don't know nothing about it. If it were up to me...

But it isn't up to me, so don't worry. Don't worry about me, I mean. Worry about the nazi-genie that everyone is afraid to give a stern talking to. In my opinion, psychically wounding nazi's goes a long way towards defeating the nazi-genie. There may come a time where you all come around to my way of thinking, after things get really bad, and there is no other option but cleaning house. Instead we're what, making the world safe for the budding Anders Breviks out there.

Oh, excuse me, have I gone too far? Sorry, so sorry. Allow me to reel it back in. You may come around to my way of thinking someday, let's leave it at that.

Anyway it's not like I'm saying fox news should be shut down.

[seemslikeadream]

Alex Jones May Have Just Gotten A Federal Investigation Into His Banning
The Justice Department announced an investigation of social media regulation as Infowars' Alex Jones protests his banning from Facebook and YouTube.

Kevin Collier
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on September 5, 2018, at 9:06 p.m. ET


The Justice Department says it is investigating social media companies’ alleged political bias amid claims from President Trump and other conservatives that social media is unfair to them.

Referring to Facebook and Twitter, the Justice Department on Wednesday announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions “has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.”

The move immediately prompted free speech concerns.


“There has been no allegation that the social media companies have violated the law in handling the speech on their platforms, and thus no apparent reason for the DOJ to become involved. The DOJ’s intervention here appears to be an attack on free speech, not a defense of it,” said Alex Abdo, a senior staff attorney Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute.

The Justice Department declined to elaborate on which laws the companies may have broken or how they were stifling an exchange of ideas. Several state attorneys general declined to say if they were attending the meeting, which sources said was scheduled for Sept. 25.

Companies such as Facebook and Twitter are behemoths in social media, which exposes them to potential claims that they hold a monopoly on particular forms of communication. They’ve also had difficulty explaining the automated methods they use to monitor the activities of users who threaten violence or spread conspiracy theories, opening them to accusations of bias.

“It’s interesting they finally pulled the trigger,” Chris Meserole, a Brookings fellow who studies technology and US domestic and foreign policy, said of the Justice Department announcement. “I think the biggest point of vulnerability on social media platforms is anti-competitive behavior.”

“To me, it always seemed this is the way it would play out is for folks who disagree with the way the tech platforms are targeting the alt-right in particular or folks like Alex Jones,” Meserole said, referring to the far-right conspiracy theorist behind Infowars, a site recently banned by Apple, Facebook, and Google's YouTube, though it still lives on Twitter.

“The leverage they have to get back on them is on they’re effectively a monopoly in control of online communication,” Mersole said.

Wednesday’s announcement came amid a flurry of claims that social media algorithms were fundamentally unfair to conservative users.

Many of those claims stemmed from a July story from Vice News that noted that some prominent Republican users’ names did not auto-populate when typed into the search bar. Twitter said that wasn’t an intentional attempt to hide conservatives, and that it was an algorithmic decision that makes it less intuitive to find users “who intend to manipulate or divide the conversation.”

Vice called this act a “shadow ban,” a term that previously referred to a punishment sites used that made a user’s comments invisible to others. The phrase has since been adopted by conservatives who use Vice’s definition.

Twitter said Democrats were affected as well, though it’s declined to name them, and the site no longer lets followers’ activity determine if a user’s popularity affects whether they’ll show up in the search bar.

But that hasn’t stopped some conservatives, a number of whom raised the issue of political bias on social media sites Wednesday.

Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about possible bias at his company after being invited by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey repeatedly insisted Twitter does not intentionally censor conservative voices.

Also on Wednesday, the conservative news site the Daily Caller published an excerpt of its recent interview with President Trump, focusing on the topic. “I mean the true interference in the last election was that — if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super-liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,” Trump told the site.

During a break in a Senate Intelligence hearing on Facebook and Twitter — a hearing at which political bias wasn’t brought up — Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones confronted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, calling him “a snake” and claiming, “Big tech companies are purging conservatives. They're shadow-banning people en masse.”


“What about the Democrats purging conservatives?” Jones said during the confrontation. “He’s not answering. Republicans are acting like it isn’t happening. Thank god Trump is.”

“I just don’t know who you are, man,” Rubio said.

“Infowars dot com,” Jones replied. “That’s why you didn’t get elected, you’re snake-like. Marco Rubio, the snake.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ke ... alex-jones

[elfismiles]

Twitter permanently bans Alex Jones and Infowars accounts

The accounts violated the company's abusive behavior policies, Twitter said in a series of tweets.
The ban comes weeks after Jones was banned or suspended by other major tech companies like Apple, Facebook and YouTube.
Accounts for Jones and Infowars were also banned from Twitter-owned Periscope.
Sara Salinas | @saracsalinas
Published 16 Mins Ago
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/twitter ... ounts.html

Note the dude with Google Glass on the left...

[seemslikeadream]

Alex Jones Returns To Humble Roots Of Screaming Conspiracy Theories Through Megaphone At People In Park



AUSTIN, TX—Acknowledging that his recent removal from several major media platforms may be for the best, noted conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones returned to his humble roots Monday screaming conspiracy theories through a megaphone at people in the park. “Although having my show and podcasts taken down by elitist liberal tech companies like YouTube and Apple is part of the growing feminization of our country, it’s ultimately going to backfire on them, because now I’m free to get back to the thing that launched my career—screaming crucial information about chemtrails and the gay agenda into the faces of unsuspecting park visitors,” said Jones as he eagerly approached a group of jump-roping children to shriek at them about the rise of tuberculosis in Chobani yogurt. “Sure, getting to film my show in a nice big indoor studio is great, but I feel I’d lost some of the passion that comes from hollering at people up close while they try to enjoy a picnic or play a game of bocce ball. I used to wake up in the bushes almost every day, my piss-soaked pants bunched around my ankles, my mouth already shouting at passersby and trees about white genocide. I’ve long since paid my dues as a leading conservative pundit. But once my show took off, I couldn’t help but think that I’d lost a little of that human connection that only comes from seeing the flecks of your own spit on a stranger’s face as you tell them, your voice distorted from the amplification, about the false flag operations where crisis actors try to take away our guns. And there’s just no feeling quite like the rush of climbing to the top of the jungle gym, the sweet ache of your throat lining tearing as you scream at parents and kids about autistic Muppets, the heat of the sun-warmed playground equipment seeping into your flushed nude body.” At press time, Jones was being escorted from Austin’s Balcones Public Park by police officers after an unsuccessful attempt to sell his Child Ease supplements to a family celebrating their daughter’s birthday.
https://www.theonion.com/alex-jones-ret ... 1828144517

[DrEvil]

Remember: you are a guest here. It is not censorship if you violate the rules and your post is deleted. All civilizations have rules and if you violate them you can expect to be ostracized from the tribe.

Guess which website this is from?
(Hint: it's not Twitter)

[8bitagent]

Yes, I remember when we on the more "left" side of the crazy conspiracy spectrum during the Bush era would not so secretly check out Infowars/Alex Jones, ZeroHedge, Wikileaks/Assange before they became pro Trump stooges flirting with this alt right or whatever its called. Some of you were even into "Red Ice Radio" when they were shapeshifting lizard Jew conspiracies but not full blown neo Nazis as they are now.

Im trying to remember when Alex Jones went from "EVERY TERROR ATTACK/PLOT BLAMED ON MUSLIMS IS A CIA/MI6 FALSE FLAG" to his current "Muslims are a Soros plot to destroy Wester Culture" stance....but lets not forget that Twitters permanent ban on Alex Jones and Infowars came literally from a Twitter Periscope of him heckling a senator outside the Twitter/Facebook censorship hearings....EXACTLY what Sansour and the handsmaids tale looney bin were doing at the Kavannah hearings. (of course, I say that as I also support everyones right to protest)

Full caveat, while in the early 2000's Alex Jones scared me off, by the mid 2000s I was regularly checking out his podcasts in the anti Bush/anti War/911 truth era before he went full dive into Tea Party/Birtherism and then MAGA.

But it is odd...that Twitter wont ban most of the neo nazi alt right personalities with large followings, but suddenly Alex Jones is public enemy #1. I mean Democrat and Hollywood celebs openly call for citizens to march to washington to harass politicians in DC and during hearings. Trump attacks even Republican senators but gets banned after periscoping such encounters.

My point is this: IF when "our side"(I guess "progressives"?) maybe one day have a not so neocon warmonger or not so neo fascist third position neo reactionary populist as president...all the insanity the SJW left, Twitter army and Democrats are doing will be weaponized tenfold to obstruct a Bernie Sanders type candidate. Or maybe deep down both sides secretly want a civil war. Sure there will be a hashtag and emoji for that

[DrEvil]

I'm still not clear on when being a social justice warrior became a bad thing.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I'm still not clear on when being a social justice warrior became a bad thing.

Google Trends, US 2004-present, for Social Justice

Google Trends, US 2004-present, for Social Justice Warrior

So, looks like 2012 was when SJW-as-epithet arrived, marked by spikes in September 2014, when it earned a Wiki page and Laurie P wrote her manifesto, and November 2016, which, well, duh.

[Jerky]

I second everything Dada writes here.

Sincerely,
YOPJerky

Wow, I can barely scroll on that zerohedge, it's so full of ads. Popups trying to talk to me and everything. So much trash. Reminds me of those tech n gadget world websites, or the surfers paradise sites where the content is the advertising and vice-versa.

I gather zerohedge sees things differently than I do? Am I wrong in saying the zerohedge point was making a prediction, smugly in tone, that shutting down Jones is going to backfire?

Well, whatever the zerohedge point, I'm not too worried. This is the fickle internet, afterall.

It's like I was saying: 350k views for Jones this week. A spike in viewers, due to the attraction of high drama. 100k curiosity seekers at the crucifixion, savvy.

I think it's a small price to pay. Seriously, the guy is agitating for war, now, plain as can be. Where do we draw the line? This has gone beyond yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre. And that's the baseline we usually work from. So.

I know, Chomsky supports the nazi's right to say whatever, he'll even sign petitions supporting a holocaust denier's right to deny the holocaust. I get that. Free speech.

Agitating for war, coaxing nuts out of their shells to wreak havoc on innocents, sorry, I just can't support that. It just doesn't strike me as free speech, is all. I'm not saying I'm right, I know it's just my opinion. I think we have enough to worry about with the fbi stirring up and protecting the crazy shooty types, without having to worry about Jones-fueled fans, on top of all that.

Maybe that's not why they're going after Jones, I don't know. Probably doing it for some reason that I wouldn't care for that just happens to run parallel with my own reasoning.

My reasoning is much worse, you should all be glad I'm not in charge! haha. I say shut it all down, d-day in troll town. I know WR sees something worth keeping around in the chans. I don't know nothing about it. If it were up to me...

But it isn't up to me, so don't worry. Don't worry about me, I mean. Worry about the nazi-genie that everyone is afraid to give a stern talking to. In my opinion, psychically wounding nazi's goes a long way towards defeating the nazi-genie. There may come a time where you all come around to my way of thinking, after things get really bad, and there is no other option but cleaning house. Instead we're what, making the world safe for the budding Anders Breviks out there.

Oh, excuse me, have I gone too far? Sorry, so sorry. Allow me to reel it back in. You may come around to my way of thinking someday, let's leave it at that.

Anyway it's not like I'm saying fox news should be shut down.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I know WR sees something worth keeping around in the chans. I don't know nothing about it. If it were up to me...

Nothing is "worth keeping around" except tigers, public libraries and WIC.

To the extent the Chan phenomenon has redeeming qualities, it is due to circumstances that exist independently of those forums. My contention is supported by the fact that all attempts to kill it have failed.

[dada]

Yeah, but no one has really tried. I mean swat team kicking in doors at three in the morning kind of tried. Like what the FDA does to little pharma.

Hey, a guy can dream. No law against that. Yet.

[JackRiddler]

I'm still not clear on when being a social justice warrior became a bad thing.

Google Trends, US 2004-present, for Social Justice

Google Trends, US 2004-present, for Social Justice Warrior

So, looks like 2012 was when SJW-as-epithet arrived, marked by spikes in September 2014, when it earned a Wiki page and Laurie P wrote her manifesto, and November 2016, which, well, duh.

Much appreciated. See how it was at zero as recently as May 2013? Figures it's that new. I've known "SJW" exclusively as an attack term, now having seen it hundreds of times as such, but until now never as a self-appellation used by anyone on any form of the left however broadly defined. I was unaware of Penny's "manifesto," and I shall guess that's not just me, but indicative: something minor that was noticed by her alt-right antagonists more than anyone who partakes in the generally misrepresented range of causes with which it is now associated, let alone anyone who views it positively.

By the way, the direct comparison of SJW to the long-running concept of social justice, no "warrior," is instructive:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... %20justice

It's like people who choose to call themselves "conspiracy theorists" (who tend to be either merchandisers looking for marks or, um, the marks). Or Jon Gold's incredible misstep of coining himself the first "truther." Or the corporate media - I think it was WaPo and its ridiculous PropOrNot adjunct - announcing in Nov. 2016 that "fake news" had elected Trump. As if he wasn't going to mount that one and ride it forever against them.

.

[DrEvil]

I'm still not clear on when being a social justice warrior became a bad thing.

Google Trends, US 2004-present, for Social Justice

Google Trends, US 2004-present, for Social Justice Warrior

So, looks like 2012 was when SJW-as-epithet arrived, marked by spikes in September 2014, when it earned a Wiki page and Laurie P wrote her manifesto, and November 2016, which, well, duh.

Thanks. About what I thought. It's frustrating how easily language can be twisted like that. The term is almost exclusively used as an insult by fascists (no 8bit, I'm not calling you a fascist, and sorry for jumping on you immediately after you came back), so it's depressing to see its spread to the saner parts of humanity so quickly. I guess it just shows how much traction racist horseshit (aka the alt-right) has gotten lately.

[dada]

But on message boards like this, I think SJW is a useful term, though. Because it's such an easy tell, lets me see at a quick glance who has been spending time filling their heads with troll trash.

When the SJW acronym scrolls by my viewscreen, I raise shields and activate auto-targeting. It's a reflex response, like a twitch I have. Lock on. And I leave all frequencies open, no signal jamming, so everyone can see what I'm doing.

I have no intention of using my ridiculously overpowered weapons. I just think of this as like winning roll for initiative in d&d. Tactical advantage.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I was unaware of Penny's "manifesto," and I shall guess that's not just me, but indicative: something minor that was noticed by her alt-right antagonists

Exactly, it's such an incestuous, shitty little echo chamber. The extent to which these two online communities are writing and performing for each other is hilarious, I still don't understand how anyone can take the Alt-Right seriously, as a threat, or even a real phenomenon.