I don’t care who he has on his show. A lot of people, including a ton of normal sane people, don’t subscribe to this brain dead idea of political purity. ESPN having Kyrie Irving on for an interview does not make them antisemitic, Jimmy Fallon having Trump on his issue doesn’t make him pro-Jan 6th, Joe Rogan having Alex Jones on his podcast doesn’t make him a conspiracy theory nut, and Alex Jones having Richard Spencer on his show doesn’t make him a Neo Nazi. At the day what matter is their personal views. Alex Jones is a lot of things, he’s a crazy conspiracy theorist, gun fanatic, he’s an awful person who made money off the deaths of kids, he defamed people, he harassed people, he pushes a lot of false information, and the list goes on and on. Nobody is disagreeing with any of that. However, one of the things that he is not is a racial supremacist. It just discredits your point when you attack Alex Jones for the one thing he’s not.
And I totally agree. Like, for example Jon Stewart has military-industrial complex folk on his show all the time. I won’t call him a war hawk or a war profiteer, or whatever. The difference is he also pushes back pretty hard on his guests as well. However, if Jon Stewart were to have supremacist after supremacist appear on his show, not address their stances, and say “They make really good stuff you should check them out” it will start to get suspicious.
Once you start listening to the content of his show he does the lovely “I’m not racist/anti-semetic, but [insert some of the most racist shit you’ve ever heard]” or frames his narratives around white christendom needing to be perpetually in fear and how the white empire is under attack. His shtick around the “globalist” is a just a rehash of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion with a modern coat of paint. Heck, in less savory circles of the internet “globalists” is often surrounded by three parentheticals and is short-hand for Jewish people, and Jones doesn’t seem to care about the similarity. He’ll use points from Race Realism or Great Replacement. Jones won’t say he’s a supremacist, because that gives up the game and he’d rather operate by winking-and-nodding, however he has no issue platforming them and aping their talking points at an extremely high clip. Like, I could lay out a list of his guests, but that seems really tedious for the both of us — but I could if you want. Now, I’m no mind reader, so I can’t say with 100% certainty that he is one or not, but he operates not too indifferently from one. He advances their narratives and pushes them to his audience.
I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of this weird dude over the years, and I hate to say this because it comes off as “just trust me bro,” but between the viral moments of the show the day-in-and-day-out is this pretty boring broadcast where uncharismatic anti-semites, racists, or sumpremacists toe the line of saying dogwhistles over what their positions are in other spaces (like their books, weird blogs, or organisations they’re a member of) just long enough to get through the interview. And only if they step over that line Jones gently pushes back as reminder of “please don’t say the quiet part loud here” but never directly condemns their position.
And, look, we may disagree and that’s fine. I’m comfortable in the thought we won’t change each other’s minds.
I don’t care who he has on his show. A lot of people, including a ton of normal sane people, don’t subscribe to this brain dead idea of political purity. ESPN having Kyrie Irving on for an interview does not make them antisemitic, Jimmy Fallon having Trump on his issue doesn’t make him pro-Jan 6th, Joe Rogan having Alex Jones on his podcast doesn’t make him a conspiracy theory nut, and Alex Jones having Richard Spencer on his show doesn’t make him a Neo Nazi. At the day what matter is their personal views. Alex Jones is a lot of things, he’s a crazy conspiracy theorist, gun fanatic, he’s an awful person who made money off the deaths of kids, he defamed people, he harassed people, he pushes a lot of false information, and the list goes on and on. Nobody is disagreeing with any of that. However, one of the things that he is not is a racial supremacist. It just discredits your point when you attack Alex Jones for the one thing he’s not.
And I totally agree. Like, for example Jon Stewart has military-industrial complex folk on his show all the time. I won’t call him a war hawk or a war profiteer, or whatever. The difference is he also pushes back pretty hard on his guests as well. However, if Jon Stewart were to have supremacist after supremacist appear on his show, not address their stances, and say “They make really good stuff you should check them out” it will start to get suspicious.
Once you start listening to the content of his show he does the lovely “I’m not racist/anti-semetic, but [insert some of the most racist shit you’ve ever heard]” or frames his narratives around white christendom needing to be perpetually in fear and how the white empire is under attack. His shtick around the “globalist” is a just a rehash of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion with a modern coat of paint. Heck, in less savory circles of the internet “globalists” is often surrounded by three parentheticals and is short-hand for Jewish people, and Jones doesn’t seem to care about the similarity. He’ll use points from Race Realism or Great Replacement. Jones won’t say he’s a supremacist, because that gives up the game and he’d rather operate by winking-and-nodding, however he has no issue platforming them and aping their talking points at an extremely high clip. Like, I could lay out a list of his guests, but that seems really tedious for the both of us — but I could if you want. Now, I’m no mind reader, so I can’t say with 100% certainty that he is one or not, but he operates not too indifferently from one. He advances their narratives and pushes them to his audience.
I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of this weird dude over the years, and I hate to say this because it comes off as “just trust me bro,” but between the viral moments of the show the day-in-and-day-out is this pretty boring broadcast where uncharismatic anti-semites, racists, or sumpremacists toe the line of saying dogwhistles over what their positions are in other spaces (like their books, weird blogs, or organisations they’re a member of) just long enough to get through the interview. And only if they step over that line Jones gently pushes back as reminder of “please don’t say the quiet part loud here” but never directly condemns their position.
And, look, we may disagree and that’s fine. I’m comfortable in the thought we won’t change each other’s minds.