Susan Wright on the Right
The sanctum of wingnuts and far right conspiracy theorists is the noxious InfoWars. I’ve covered some of the amphetamine-fueled lunacy of its host, Alex Jones, before.
Jones, for those who have remained blissfully and blessedly unaware of his antics, between infomercials for male virility supplements and vitamins, stuffs the empty brainpan of his viewers with notions such as, 9/11 was an inside job, and the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.
He’s currently being sued by the still-grieving parents of elementary school kids killed in the Sandy Hook tragedy, by the way.
In recent weeks, Apple, YouTube, Spotify, and Facebook have all moved to purge InfoWars from their platforms, as part of an effort to clamp down on hyper-partisan, potentially harmful rhetoric.
As you can imagine, this has caused quite the fuss with Jones and his followers, already convinced that “conservative” voices are being shut out, and even shadow banned across social media platforms.
Shadow banning, for those wondering what that is, is when moderators to a site quietly ban a user, preventing anyone else from seeing what they post. The banned user can see their own posts, but normally don’t realize they’ve been banned until they take note of the lack of response.
Also, Jones and his followers are not conservatives. They’re far right lunatics that only care about tearing things down and promoting conspiracy theories, rather than standing for any legitimate conservative causes. For instance, conservatives think the government should not be allowed to tell a private company how to operate, trusting that people who begin a business, whether it’s a cake shop or a social media outlet, know best how to operate their business, without the government burdening them with regulations and forcing them to serve those they feel uncomfortable about or morally compelled to deny. The market will decide if their business moves are wise.
Because he hasn’t been getting enough attention lately, Alex Jones decided to hoof it over to Capitol Hill and wait for the latest Senate Intelligence Committee hearing regarding foreign influence across social media to let out.
Once there, he inserted himself in among serious, legitimate news reporters, as they attempted to interview Florida Senator Marco Rubio about the day’s proceedings.
Jones repeatedly interrupted Rubio as he sought to answer questions about the hearing, where Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg were testifying.
The two leaders were asked questions about what their platforms were doing to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections, but were also expected to be grilled about perceived biases against conservatives on their networks.
Jones’ presence in the hallway was a nightmare for those who were trying to ask serious questions.
In video taken of the confrontation, you can see the annoyance on the faces of other reporters, who attempted to get questions answered, while Jones repeatedly interrupted Rubio.
Wow, this video. Alex JONES calls RUBIO a "frat boy" and touches Rubio on the shoulder. Rubio tells Jones not to touch him and that he won't be arrested because I'll "take care of you myself."https://t.co/AGRMrDBMGa
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 5, 2018
As Rubio spoke of China and authoritarian governments using social media to disrupt, Jones, putting on a show, continuously interrupted, saying Democrats were doing the same thing to conservatives (Alex Jones is NOT a conservative).
After first attempting to answer Jones’ questions about “deplatforming,” things got really interesting when he put his hands on the senator.
When Jones reached out to touch Rubio’s shoulder, the senator glared at Jones, warning him not to touch him again in front of a gaggle of reporters with cameras and notebooks.
“You’re not gonna get arrested man,” Rubio said after Jones said he had only “patted you nicely.”
“I’ll handle it myself,” Rubio said.
Yeah. Marco Rubio went there.
Jones chuckled, called Rubio a “frat boy,” then claimed the senator had threatened to beat him up.
“Marco Rubio just threatened to beat me up,” Jones told a camera trailing him around on Capitol Hill.
“I didn’t say that,” Rubio said.
“Oh, he’ll beat me up,” Jones said mockingly. “Oh he’s so mad. You’re not going to silence me. You’re not going to silence America.”
You’re not America, you crackpot.
“You are literally like a little gangster thug,” Jones said.
“I don’t know who you are man,” Rubio said at one point to the conspiracy theorist, who has falsely stated that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
That led Jones to boast about his site’s visitors and followers.
“Infowars.com is bigger than ever,” Jones said.
And let’s make no mistake. Jones’ goal was publicity. He’s not that concerned with censorship of conservatives (something that’s not happening). He’s concerned about his bottom line.
As Rubio left the reporters, he invited them to hang around and “talk to this clown,” referring to Jones.
“Huh, huh, huh, huh. Look at this little frat boy. So cool,” Jones said as Rubio walked off.
Jones then used a gay slur toward Rubio.
“Go back to the bathhouse. Compromise in the bathhouses. There goes Rubio. Little punk,” Jones said.
That’s one of the conspiracy theories spread about Rubio during the primaries by idiots like Jones and his InfoWars channel – that he led a secret gay life and participated in gay “foam parties.”
There were even pictures passed around across social media of what was supposed to be Rubio at these parties, even though there was no way to identify who the person in the images was. At best, the man had the same hair color.
After the confrontation, Rubio gave some commonsense commentary on jerks like Jones.
“You guys give these guys way too much attention. We’re making crazy people superstars, and so you’re going to get crazier people,” he said.
Rubio said he knows Jones by name, but didn’t recognize him.
“I see some scrubby guy walk up to me, step to me, acting all crazy. I didn’t know who he was. I know the name, I know all the crazy stuff, I just don’t know what he looks like,” he said.
Asked if he at all feared for his safety when Jones touched him, Rubio said, “He touched me and I just asked him not to do it.”
“I just asked him not to touch me. He didn’t do it again,” he noted.
His reaction was exactly the right reaction. Jones had no business touching him. In fact, that he continuously interrupted and tried to leverage this event to his advantage is exactly the kind of crap behavior that makes he and his ilk a blotch on the face of actual journalism
And he is not a conservative.
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