For anybody who is not yet aware of the mischievous alt-right political troll Alex Jones, I envy you. Really, it’s not even fair to connect him with politics, because his opinions are mostly on inner-dimensional space demons controlling the world from the ethereal plane through the left-wing media. Watching one of his YouTube videos is like watching a train wreck into a hospital. It’s gripping, terrifying, you just want it to stop, but you still can’t help to look away. For that, I would declare Alex Jones a marketing mastermind.

            He hassingle handedly become the spokesperson for fringe lunatics in the world. Myanswer to that is, well, someone has to. The world would be a better placewithout conspirator henchmen of the dark clogging up the arteries of ourinternet, but I suppose it’s better to at least have them coalesce in onecollective space of confusion. At least that way we can keep an eye on what thecrazies are up to.

            Explainingan Alex Jones rant is difficult because it’s a lot like an avant-garde film.Nobody really understands what is going on, and even those buffs who claim tobe specialists of the genre couldn’t give you the cliff notes if they tried. Andif it weren’t already niche enough of a market, he’s been essentiallyrestricted to the confines of his website. There’s good reason for it too,because the Alex Jones “Info Wars” was banned from Apple, Facebook, YouTube,and Spotify all in one fell swoop.

            Reason forthe Alex Jones ban was clear. His channel not only regurgitates whacky conspiracytheories, but frequently engages in spewing vicious hate speech. Takinghorrific stances on Muslims, immigrants, and transgenders was enough for thesesocial media giants to ban him altogether from their platforms. After years ofmisinformation and fear mongering, his show has finally been brought to ascreeching halt, at least on major social media platforms.

            Though,hate is hard to eradicate. It seems that Jones’ devotees have only been fueledby his termination from these platforms. Jones called the act “a war on freespeech” and urged his fans to donate money to fight the cause.

            And Jonesis no sheepish reluctant to siphon money from his listeners. He activelymarkets his “health” products on his show that are designed to preventgovernment brain washing and FDA organized mass poisoning. Schilling thesesnake-oil health products has allowed his net worth to grow to 10 milliondollars, and his listeners to sleep soundly knowing that they are safe fromunderground bio-warfare.

            If it werehealth fraud and hateful conspiracy he stopped at, we’d be lucky. Among thecountless hateful and misinformed allegations Jones has made, one group hasgone as far as to take Jones to court for defamation. After making ludicrouslyinsensitive claims that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax and that thevictim’s families were “crisis-actors”, the grieving families refused to standby and be slandered.

            The trialis still ongoing, but the six families that filed suit have succeeded in theacquisition of his relevant business records. As if any of his claims held anyweight before, Jones’ deposition defense was based on psychosis brought on bythe endless lies of the media. Since, the families have publicly releasedJones’ deposition videos. This is atypical for an ongoing court case, but thefamilies want to inform the public of Jones’ insidious slander.

            Whilejustice is served, the only glaring takeaway is that the old saying “all pressis good press” doesn’t seem to hold true. After being banned from major streamingplatforms, Jones has been reduced to a shouting maniac, reverberating off thewalls of his own website. The question raised is, how far must someone gobefore their right to a platform is revoked altogether.

            For Jones,it may take imprisonment. As if he weren’t in deep enough water already, hislatest tirade was an all-out threat on Joe Rogan. Once friend and podcastcolleague, Rogan has hosted Jones on his show many times. Jones stated that“Jesus told me to destroy Joe Rogan”, after Rogan asked him to get help.Watching the actual video is terrifying, as he viciously squeezes is hands andstates that he will “squeeze the proverbial neck of Joe Rogan”. The video hassince gone viral, many laughing it off as entertainment, but for a man whoconfessed his own psychosis, it could very well be interpreted as a direct anddangerous threat.

            Taking thefringe media by storm, Jones has become somewhat of an urban legend. His videoshave been chopped and edited into autotuned songs of disillusion and turnedinto tasty memes that reign the internet. As entertaining as these may be,knowing that someone out there actually holds these beliefs, has a podium tospeak from, and is gaining loyal followers is downright scary. Nevertheless,Jones has become somewhat of a pop-icon.

            From amarketing perspective, Jones has been able to amass a lot of media attention,but the question remains, at what cost? Spewing his shock value uncheckedbanter, he has brought himself fame and fortune, but it may also bring his demise.Whether Jones truly holds his views of Intergalactic Space Nazis dear to hisheart, or if it’s all a maniacal publicity stunt, he has clearly oversteppedhis boundaries.

           So, while blazing your own trail to carve out your internet identity, be bold, be brazen, but don’t be a lunatic. All of this media attention may have brought Jones some immediate self-glorifying gratification, but it may eventually cost him his freedom. Everything aside, the whole world is watching Alex Jones descent into madness, while his depraved train wreck of a podcast comes to a screeching halt