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© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Sandy Hook families put hoaxers on defensive
By PAT EATON-ROBB HARTFORD, Conn©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
36 Comments
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Ah_so
The people who spread and promote this particular conspiracy are pure scum.
Luddite
I couldn't agree more. They know they are causing pain and anguish, they know they are harrassing people, they are deliberately setting out with malice aforethought.
rainyday
People like Jones attacking the parents of innocent murdered children are the lowest form of scumbag imaginable. I hope they take him for every dime he and every one of his followers has. In fact even that isn't enough, they really belong in prison.
Strangerland
Maybe he should have interacted face to face with Mr. Ponzer before publishing his crazy book. This is why these people are such morons. They claim something is the truth, like Tower 7 or some crap like that, and ignore reality and science out of desperation to believe that they have some sort of insider conspiratorial information that others don't have.
Chip Star
To be fair, Alex Jones has repeatedly apologized for his part in this nonsense and corrected his stance.
PTownsend
Conspiracy theories are too often aimed at the intellectually vulnerable portions of populations who tend to believe them, regardless how whack, especially when people with some power over them, perhaps a religious leader, a TV talking head (Alex Jones, Limbaugh, Ingraham, etal), perhaps a politician they trust, pushes them.
It should be worrying to anyone with even a modicum of reasoning skills that the current President of the US himself spreads conspiracy theories.
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-conspiracy-theories-2016-5
It should also be worrying to anyone with even a modicum of reasoning skills that organizations like Qanon, Breitbart-Bannon, various Moscow financed groups, various Chinese financed groups, various Israeli funded groups, various other extremist groups of all sorts are using media, including sites like this to push conspiracy theories with the intent to undermine democracies.
Attilathehungry
Suing Jones for defamation is the correct course of action. Go after the people who made threats and prosecute them too. But you need to be careful in going after Jones for what his readers do or don't do. He isn't responsible for what other people choose to do.
rainyday
That in no way changes the fact that he literally turned an army of fanatics loose on the innocent parents of murdered children based on nothing more than rambling delusional nonsense. Deciding after the damage was done to back off when he is faced with actual financial consequences for his behavior doesn't earn him any points in my book.
Strangerland
Too late. He spent years spouting his crap before that. He needs to learn that his actions have consequences.
Attilathehungry
I figure Alex Jones to be a prime candidate to stroke out at sometime in the near future if he keeps up the vituperation. No big loss. Anyway, good to see the actual writers of threats being taken to task for their crimes.
CrazyJoe
Mr. Pozner & the other Sandy Hook parents are heroes for going after these sleazebag conspiracy theory profiteers. Anyone who believes the nonsense spewed by Alex Jones & his ilk should remove themselves from the gene pool.
Chip Star
I am not excusing Alex Jones' repugnance, I was simply stating a fact that is constantly left out of these stories.
Carolee Thumma
--To be fair, Alex Jones has repeatedly apologized for his part in this nonsense and corrected his stance.--
Has nothing to do with being fair, Alex Jones only retracted AFTER he was taken to court. Just like after he was taken to court by his ex-wife did he suddenly start spouting "Alex Jones is just a character that I play on TV and the internet"
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/jones-trial-verdict
He's a grifter, a conman and he loves every minute of it. He spouts his conspiracy theories and makes millions selling fake vitamins and supplements to meatheads. Like I said he only changes his story when he is pulled into court and could lose something, either his kids or his money. Which he lost his kids in the last court appearance, and hopefully he'll lose his cash in the next one.
smithinjapan
Chip Star: "To be fair, Alex Jones has repeatedly apologized for his part in this nonsense and corrected his stance."
He has NOT. He made excuses a few times about how he doesn't remember doing it and it is a mental issue, but denies many of the charges and still blames it on Hillary Clinton. And just yesterday it was announced he sent child porn to the victims, and is demanding their lawyers heads be on pikes (offering $1M) for bringing it up. This guy deserves to be in prison for life. Period.
Attilathehungry
You know what the absolute worst, cruellest thing is that you could do to someone like Alex Jones?
Ignore him.
Anything else, save for skilfully directed legal action, will only encourage him.
Chip Star
Hilarious that I'm getting pilloried for pilloried for stating a fact. Carry on, it's enjoyable to watch.
For those claiming Jones hasn't apologized:
https://youtu.be/uDAxVYhRM6M
WilliB
Isn´t it interesting how all the big tech companies conspired to shut down Alex Jones channels at exactly the same time in unison..... with the argument that he is a conspiracy theorist.
About the Sandy Hook incident, by the way, he has since claried that he was wrong on that. Of course, since the self-declared arbiters of free speech in the big tech companies and corporate media have muffled him, you have to dig yourself to find his voice.
Chip Star
Private companies can do as they please regarding speech. Nothing to cry about there.
"Dig" is rather hyperbolic given its connotation of being arduous. It isn't arduous finding the info at all.
Chip Star
Repugnant that those images exist.
You're not attempting to connect this with Alex Jones having apologized for and admitted he was entirely incorrect about his repugnant statements about Sandy Hook, are you?
You do realize Alex Jones himself does not send informations to the plaintiffs, correct? His lawyers send it to the plaintiffs' lawyers (what most people refer to derogatorily as "ambulance chasers").
Jimizo
It does seem a pretty fair description. How would you describe him?
I’m a bit torn on the conspiracy theorists. I sometimes find them funny although I’ve noticed they themselves usually lack a self-deprecating sense of humour when it comes to their theories being mocked. Then again, as someone who studied science, I find the idea of flat-earthers or those arguing climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese very retrograde.
As for Jones, he’s scum. His Sandy Hook garbage was pure filth. There are evidently no depths he won’t sink to. It’s just sad there is an appetite for this.
WilliB
Jimizo:
So let me get this: Tech companies carrying out a conspiracy = good. Alex Jones talking about conspiracies = baad. Is that it?
Jimizo
I just asked if you think the description of Alex Jones as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ is accurate or deserved.
What do you think?
Madverts
Heh, cannot wait to hear the orange moron weigh in....
Chip Star
I couldn't agree more.
SuperLib
People who engage in conspiracy theories are a cancer on our society. They are toxic human beings.
commanteer
Yes, amazing how many fell for Russiagate, and still do.
That's not very charitable. They just believe in different whack theories than you do, no need to dehumanize them and imply they are not deserving of humane treatment.
Jimizo
I don’t think that all theories are equally ridiculous. For example, I’m convinced the earth is roughly spherical and NASA and other organizations are not lying about this.
What I notice about the majority of conspiracy theorists is:
They tend to be libertarians.
They don’t react well to jokes about their mindset.
They use words and expressions like MSM, globalists and deep-state.
Their conspiracy theories are generally the same but how many they are truly convinced by depends on their location on the spectrum.
They are usually coy about revealing their sources.
They aren’t usually bad people but they should be ridiculed.
Strangerland
.
Um, are you going to answer the question that was asked?
Strangerland
You mean that thing where multiple members of Trump's team were sent to jail for colluding with Russia, with the Mueller report showing collusion but not to the level of criminal conspiracy?
You do realize that a conspiracy theory generally indicates something that doesn't have a 400 page report by the FBI showing it to be true.
WilliB
Jimizo:
Yeah, that is one label you could stick on him. But when Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest, and a dozen other Silicon Valley tech companies removed all of his content without warning on exactly the same night, removing him from the public square, was that a bizarre coincidence, or a conspiracy? And the reason these conspirators gave for their action was that he his a "conspiracy theorist". You seriously do not see the irony in this?
WilliB
Strangerland:
Err... as far as I can see, not a single "member of Trump's team" was "sent to jail for colluding with Russia". All these sentences completely unrelated. You might want to look at other news outlets than CNN and MSNBC sometimes.
smithinjapan
Chip Star: The guy you are defending just literally offered a $1M reward for the heads of people accusing him of doing what he did, and had this to say to a Sandy Hook lawyer:
“Total war!” Jones said. “You want it, you got it! I’m not into kids like your Democratic Party, you cocksuckers! So get ready!”
Yeah... sounds pretty apologetic to me, man. Do you maybe want to rewrite your statement to say he offered an INSINCERE apology? Sending kids porn to people (and his excuses are ridiculous... he even said, "I don't like sex with kids!" after it was found on his computer... malware doesn't put kiddy porn on your computer). Now he's calling for murder.
Pretty apologetic, indeed.
smithinjapan
WilliB: "Err... as far as I can see, not a single "member of Trump's team" was "sent to jail for colluding with Russia"."
How can you see anything when you're head's in the sand, bud? Blinding yourself and then saying "I don't see it" doesn't mean it's not right there slapping you in the face. I love that you guys apologize for this guy and his ilk, like you defended child molester Roy Moore, too. Quite the party, the GOP.