Misinformation Peddlers

[Friday]

So can we move from "haha Joe Rogan is funny if a little stupid and potentially harmful, he has cool guests sometimes i really liked it when he had _____ on they talked about some really thought provoking things like what if reality isn't reality" to "Wow fuck this guy entirely" yet

[Friday]

The rest of the thread doesn't have to be specifically about Joe Rogan, I just want a place for all this crap to go so when I click on other threads I don't have to worry (as much) about my blood pressure spiking and feeling awful for 20 minutes to a lifetime

[Mongrel]

I don't remember which thread had all the original Alex Jones garbage, but seems like this is apt.

[Thad]

CW for the thread which goes into detail about the Sandy Hook massacre, the aftermath, and the continuing threats and harassment the families have faced.

Now, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but if I had to guess whether it's a good idea or a bad idea to continue publicly insulting your victim on the day of your sentencing hearing, I think I'd probably go with "bad idea".

[Thad]

Now, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but if I had to guess whether it's a good idea or a bad idea to continue publicly insulting your victim on the day of your sentencing hearing, I think I'd probably go with "bad idea".

I also kinda feel like maybe calling the judge a pedophile and the jury a bunch of ignorant poors is probably not the best strategy to go with.

[Thad]

I should stop reading this. The schadenfreude is delicious but it's making me anxious.

[Mongrel]

It's been kind of past schadenfreude for me for a while now, more a march to the sea. I want to see Jones crucified and his power broken, as a necessary public good; it's long past time InfoWars should have been burned to the ground such that not even ashes remain.

[Thad]

I think he'll have a show as long as he can still sell snake oil to rubes.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see some budget cuts in his future.

[Mongrel]

Headline this afternoon: "U.S. judge denies Alex Jones request for mistrial in defamation case"

[Thad]

That's not notable in itself; Jones's attorney has pretty much constantly been demanding a mistrial. I saw this comment earlier but I can't find a primary source so I'm not sure if it's a direct quote, a paraphrase, or comic exaggeration:

Judge denies Jones’ attorney’s motion for a mistrial. Judge can’t even tell if the motion for a mistrial was serious, notes it’s “like the 17th time” they’ve asked for one.

[Mongrel]

$4.1 million nominal base award, $45.2 million in punitive.

Not enough, but apparently this is just the first of a half-dozen or more of nearly-identical lawsuits which are in process.

[Thad]

$4.1 million nominal base award, $45.2 million in punitive.

Not enough

It won't be once the judge cuts the punitive damages to $750,000-$900,000 since that's the cap under Texas law. Or so I'm hearing.

[Mongrel]

Why am I not surprised Texas has such a law (I'm sure it's not the only such state).

EDIT: From the WaPo article on the award (which confirms the cap you mentioned at $750k, though that's per-plaintiff):

In court Friday, Bernard Pettingill, Jr., a forensic economist and former economics professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, testified he estimated the combined net worth of Jones and his business entities to be between $135 million and $270 million.

People really need to have this thrown at them over and over, that Jones' (and those like him) lying pays.

[Thad]

Oh, and he'll definitely be fundraising off this. And use $49 million number.

Of the two suits still coming, one of them is also in Texas, and will have similar limitations on damages. But the other is in Connecticut, and I'm not sure what the relevant law is there.

[Mongrel]

Game: Ruin any famous statement by adding "then CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened."

[Yoji]

Game: Ruin any famous statement by adding "then CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened."

But then there was Fire and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark. Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of the Dead, The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights. And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten.

Then, Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened...

Seriously, I often wonder what happens to these people. Zuck's about my age, but... I mean, we're looking at the same facts, right? We've both grown up learning that Jones is crazy scum, and this is what you choose?

[nosimpleway]

I don't know if The Zuck is full-on Qrazy or anything, but regardless of his personal beliefs... Crazy scum drives engagement, and engagement makes money.

[Friday]

It's funny to me that everyone in the 90s was worried about the darkside of the internet having a negative effect on society, but the thing that ended up doing the most harm was the most mainstream thing on the whole goddamn thing.

[nosimpleway]

Facebook and Fox News did to our parents what they were afraid video games would do to us

[Mongrel]

I don't know if The Zuck is full-on Qrazy or anything, but regardless of his personal beliefs... Crazy scum drives engagement, and engagement makes money.

Yeah, I don't think anyone believes he's a conspiracy theorist because that would require actual beliefs. He's more a soulless husk, a hole torn through creation showing the void beneath.