The Vast Buried Secret Alex Jones Just Uncovered
Human beings. Many of us. Are stupid.
With all the hoopla surrounding the banning of Alex Jones on various services today, I have yet to see anyone give the obvious, high-level take. Which surprises me, because it’s quite fundamental. It speaks to why this is and was always going to be a lose/lose situation. Perhaps it’s because the argument is a bit uncouth. But it needs to be said: the entire reason we’re talking about Alex Jones, and in fact, the entire reason he exists as a known entity in any capacity is simple.
We’re dumb.
By “we” I don’t necessarily mean you (but maybe I do!), I mean all of us collectively. If the human race is only as strong as our weakest links, we’re very weak in the mind, indeed.
Alex Jones is a lunatic. Some people act insane for good reason — at least from a capitalist perspective. It’s an act. Lunacy sells. That’s undoubtedly a part of the equation of Alex Jones. But some of the things he says are so far beyond any appropriate level of human decency that you simply must believe that he is not fully right in the head. To some degree, that’s sad.
But even more sad is the people who listen to and believe the bullshit he spouts. The people who buy his crazy pills — literally. I mean, he has an audience. And that’s the problem. We can blame Facebook, or Apple, or YouTube, or Twitter, but the fact of the matter is that he would (and will) utilize the internet in some way to reach his audience. That’s why these bans — which I do believe all of these companies have the right to do! — are unlikely to amount to much. And yes, could actually backfire.
A fool with his theory was just gifted a conspiracy. And he’s at the center of it.
In an ideal world, Alex Jones would upload his nonsense somewhere on the internet and no one would give a shit. Because caring about what a crazy person says is a huge waste of time. Conspiracy theories are a huge waste of time. They may be entertainment to some degree, but there are so many better ways to spend your days on this planet. The fact that a not insignificant portion of us do not realize this is again, sad.
And it’s the core of the problem. It’s not the microphone, it’s the audience. It’s the fact that there is an audience.
Now, you could argue the same basic notion is true with Donald Trump. And I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you! But — and stay with me for a minute while I make this argument — at least there, some people who put up with Trump’s nonsense have a reason to do so. Maybe they wanted tax cuts (check). Maybe they wanted a more conservative judicial branch (check). Maybe they just hated the status quo of politics (check). I’d still argue that such stances will ultimately prove stupid in the long run. It’s short term gain for long term pain — but at least we can all see why such mistakes are made: a bird in the hand and all that.
Again, the Alex Jones situation is quite a bit different. While Trump has clearly sucked in a lot of stupid people with his rhetoric — and it’s pretty easy to see why there’s such an overlap in each base — Jones has done so without the people who are just short-sighted and/or corrupt. Said another way, plenty of smart people voted for and (amazingly) still support Trump. The smart ones do so for selfish reasons. Again, I think it’s stupid, long-term, but it makes some sense in a perverse way. No smart people support Alex Jones.¹
And yet, he still exists. And he exists to the point where Facebook and YouTube and Apple and the like feel the need to ban him. And that’s sad. More sad than he is. Because his mere presence reflects poorly on us, the human race. The problem isn’t Alex Jones. The problem is us.
¹ If you’re looking for me to equivocate here, to give some wiggle room for the fools who follow Jones, you’ve come to the wrong footnote.
