After a Texas jury awarded two Sandy Hook parents $49 million in damages, yesterday a Connecticut jury in a courtroom just miles from the site of the massacre that killed 26 children and adults at the elementary school, decided that the $550 million in damages requested by the plaintiff’s attorneys didn’t send a sufficient message to inhuman conspiracy propagators like Alex Jones, and awarded the parents of eight children who were killed and an FBI agent $965 million in damages against Jones.
During the trial to determine damages, Jones was called to the stand early in the proceedings by the plaintiff’s attorneys, which he apparently had hoped to avoid by not putting up a defense case. Having been forced to do so, Jones ranted and raved about the “tyrant” judge, “liberals” and the fact he was tired of saying he was “sorry.” He again justified himself by claiming that he was merely giving extremist conspiracy theorists and 4chan a “hearing” on Infowars, yet it was repeatedly pointed out that Jones never pushed back on their claims, in doing so acted to de facto promote them. Like Amber Heard’s audio in which she admitted to being an abuser who “hit” and couldn’t “promise” she wouldn’t do so again, Jones couldn’t exactly hide from video clips from his show such as that in which he supported the conspiracy claim that the massacre was a government-stage “plot” where the dead were “actors,” with the intent to “take away your guns.”
The Associated Press noted after the case went to the jury that the plaintiffs had “received death and rape threats, mail from conspiracy theorists that included photos of dead children, and had in-person confrontations with people telling them their children or wives or mothers never existed. Mark and Jackie Barden, whose 7-year-old son Daniel was killed, testified Tuesday that people had urinated on their son's grave and threatened to dig it up to prove he was still alive. Relatives said the harassment has not stopped in the nearly 10 years since the shooting.”
The AP also reported that Jones’ attorney had attempted to strike the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act from consideration by the jury, which would penalize Jones for profiting from the sale of products he promoted, in the assumption that these conspiracy theories prompted increased viewership and a desire to support Infowars’ output through purchase of product; the fact that Jones is appealing to his fans to help him raise $500,000 for attorney fees for his appeal shows that he knows there are a lot of gullible people out there who will gladly assist him in hiding the fact he has millions hidden away that he doesn’t want anyone to know about. After taking the matter under consideration, the judge ruled that law applied in this case, and the “sky” was the limit on what the jury could award in punitive damage.
Jones was not present during the verdict on damages, having returned to Texas to rant and rave again. If anything, he is more unapologetic than ever, now promoting a new, even more outlandish conspiracy theory called the “Great Reset,” which according to political scientist Ivan Wecke, “is the global elite’s plan to instate a communist world order by abolishing private property while using COVID-19 to solve overpopulation and enslaving what remains of humanity with vaccines.”
The BBC noted after the judgment that far-right extremists like Jones—with the open or silent approval of Republicans in this country—have acted in a way in which the
Pandora's box is wide open and it's hard to close. (But) At the very least, this shows the tide is starting to turn. People realise the danger online disinformation can pose - and how dismissing it as fringe does nothing to stop harm caused to the victims. Those victims are turning to the courts, rather than social media sites or policy makers, for justice.
That might actually work better in UK, where extremist views in the media are kept under tighter control, but in this country the “freedom” to lie and promote obvious falsehoods to create an atmosphere of paranoia, hatred and division will continue until the corporate elites and billionaires—who bankroll these conspiracy mongers that are a danger to democracy and promote authoritarianism that protect their interests and not necessarily those of the “little” people who need scapegoats—become targets of lawsuits as well.
In the meantime, Jones claims he has no money, which is obviously untrue; it is believed that he has many millions of dollars illegally concealed in shell companies and in overseas tax shelters. He is joined by Donald Trump and his “Truth Social” media page, which claims to be a “big tent” for a wide variety of viewpoints, but given what we already see on that website, it is just a forum for Trump to promote QAnon theories and the like, and his “tent” only encompasses whatever lies between the far-right and extremists promoting political violence, as Trump has done in regard to his thinking as to what should happen to Mitch McConnell—who only someone like Trump could turn into a “sympathetic” character.
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