Editing Alex Jones

{{Important}}
{{Villain_Infobox 
|Image = Alex Jones Portrait (cropped).jpg
|fullname = Alexander Emerick Jones
|alias = The Most Paranoid Man in America<br>The King of Conspiracy Theories 
|origin =
|occupation = Host and administrator of ''[[InfoWars]]''
|type of villain = Delusional Hatemonger 
|goals = Continue spreading conspiracy theories (ongoing)
|crimes = [[Hate Speech]]<br>[[Defamation]]<br>[[Doxxing]]<br>[[Islamophobia]]<br>[[Xenophobia]]<br>[[Homophobia]]<br>[[Acephobia]]<br>[[Transphobia]]<br>[[Misogyny]]<br>[[Anti-Semitism]]<br>[[Negrophobia]]<br>[[Hispanophobia]]<br>[[Sexual Harassment]]<br>[[Ableism]]<br>[[Ukrainophobia]]<br>[[Polonophobia]]<br>Embezzlement<br>[[COVID denialism]]<br>[[Americophobia]]<br>[[Hate crime]]s<br>Submitting false statements<br>Making [[Death Threats|death threats]]<br>[[Anti-Native American Sentiment]]
|hobby = Producing documentaries<br>Promoting conspiracy theories
}}{{Quote|I'm here to tell you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! It doesn't matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street, begging to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them! Do you understand?|Jones during a 2013 CNN appearance.}}
'''Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones''' (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right radio show host and highly prominent conspiracy theorist. 

Jones hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network syndicates across the United States and online. Jones' website, ''[[InfoWars]]'', promotes conspiracy theories and fake news, as do his other websites, ''NewsWars'', ''Banned.Video'' and ''PrisonPlanet''.

Jones has provided a platform and support for white nationalists, as well as serving as an "entry point" to their ideology. He has also promoted conspiracy theories alleging that the United States government either concealed information about or outright falsified the [[Adam Lanza|2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School]] [[Mass Shooting|mass shooting]], [[the Oklahoma City Bombing]], the [[September 11 attacks]], and the 1969 Moon landing. He has claimed that several governments and big businesses have colluded to create a "New World Order" through "manufactured economic crises, sophisticated surveillance tech and—above all—inside-job terror attacks that fuel exploitable hysteria".

Mainstream sources have described Jones as a conservative, far-right, [[Alt-Right]], and a conspiracy theorist, but Jones himself has described himself as a paleoconservative and a libertarian.

A longtime critic of Republican and Democratic foreign and security policy, Jones supported [[Donald Trump]]'s 2016 presidential bid and continued to support him as a savior from an alleged criminal bipartisan cabal controlling the federal government (similar to the [[QAnon]] far right conspiracy theory), despite falling out over several of Trump's policies, including airstrikes against the [[Bashar al-Assad|Assad]] regime of Syria. A staunch supporter of Trump's reelection, Jones supported the false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and on January 6, 2021, was a speaker at a rally in Lafayette Square Park supporting Trump, which preceded the [[2021 United States Capitol storming|storming of the United States Capitol]].

==Biography==
Dubbed "the most paranoid man in America" by ''Rolling Stone'' and the "king of conspiracy" by CNN, radio talk show host, “documentary”-maker and webmaster Alex Jones is notorious for epic rants about “New World Order” plots for world government, enforced [[eugenics]], secret [[concentration camps]], militarized police and behind-the-scenes control by a global corporate cabal. In his estimation, the only way to avert this dystopian future is if true patriots resist before it is too late, and his tens of thousands of acolytes are taking heed, building bunkers, hoarding food and investing in precious metals – and, in some cases, resorting to violence.

His principal venues are “The Alex Jones Show,” which has approximately 2 million weekly listeners and is nationally syndicated on about 60 radio stations, and two conspiracy-themed websites, InfoWars.com and PrisonPlanet.com. He also peddles an extensive line of self-produced videos, “documentaries” that purport to prove a whole array of conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks, secret government concentration camps, and more.

The way Jones sees it, shadowy groups within the U.S. government orchestrated — or at least refrained from preventing — the 9/11 attacks, the Boston Marathon massacre, the bombing of Oklahoma City's Murrah federal building, and the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. He has even suggested that President Obama was responsible for the 2013 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. 

When [[Jared Lee Loughner]] went on his January 2011 rampage in Tucson, Ariz., killing six people and severely wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Jones told ''Rolling Stone'': “This whole thing stinks to high heaven. … My gut tells me this was a staged mind-control operation. The government employs geometric psychological-warfare experts that know exactly how to indirectly manipulate unstable people through the media.”

It later emerged that Loughner was a fan of a “Loose Change,” a video that Jones helped finance and acted as executive director for — and a gospel source for those who believe 9/11 was an inside job. A prolific filmmaker, Jones’s many videos carry highly alarming titles like “911: The Road to Tyranny,” “Police State 3: Total Enslavement,” “The Masters of Terror: Exposed,” “New World Order: Blueprint of Madmen” and “The Obama Deception: The Mask Comes Off.”

Born in Dallas, Texas., on Feb. 11, 1974, Jones by his own account had a typical suburban upbringing in a home where his father was a dentist and his mother a homemaker. He attended Austin's Anderson High School, played football, smoked pot, and did a lot of reading. One of the most influential books from his teenage years was ''None Dare Call It Conspiracy'', a book by [[John Birch Society]] representative Gary Allen, that Jones still cites as "the quintessential primer to understand the New World Order." Published in 1972, the book sold 5 million copies and laid out a scenario in which international bankers financed the communist revolution in Russia in something akin to a lab experiment. Flushed with that success, the bankers moved to the next phase: imposing global government, centralized monetary policies, income taxes and mass social welfare programs that would keep the populace dependant and subservient. To Jones, and a sizable chunk of other disenfranchised, paranoid souls, the book's logic-leaping premise made perfect sense.

Near the end of Jones' senior year in high school, events were unfolding that only confirmed his belief in the inexorable progress of unseen, malevolent forces. A hundred miles from Austin, the federal siege of the [[Branch Davidians]]' compound hear in Waco, Texas., ended in a tragic April 1993 firestorm. The events in Waco had a galvanizing effect on Jones. Dropping out of Austin Community College, he began hosting a viewer call-in show on Austin's public access television (PACT/ACTV), where he honed the bombastic style that has since become his trademark.

Soon enough, there was more “evidence” of a tyrannical takeover, when Oklahoma City's Murrah Building was leveled by bomber [[Timothy McVeigh]] in April 1995, killing 168 people, in retribution for the deaths of the Waco cultists. Jones simply could not accept that McVeigh was a fellow "patriot." As ''Esquire Magazine'' noted in an August 2013 profile, Jones claimed he had "interviewed people who said they'd seen Timothy McVeigh planting explosives with a military escort and cops who mysteriously died after telling him the government did it. Just like the Reichstag! And there was a bombing drill that morning!"

In 1996, Jones moved to Austin's KJFK-FM to host a show called “The Final Edition,” where he warned of impending martial law and banged the drum to rebuild the Branch Davidian compound as a memorial to those he said were "murdered" by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The show lasted until 1999, when, according to ''The Austin Chronicle'', he was fired because his views made it difficult to attract sponsors despite high ratings and winning the Chronicle's “Best Austin Talk Radio Host” reader poll that year.

Jones barely skipped a beat. He set up an ISDN line in his house, and began life as an independent (long before Glenn Beck did the same thing), broadcasting via InfoWars.com and syndicated nationwide by Genesis Communications to AM, FM, and shortwave stations. His reach grew quickly, and syndication soon verged on 100 stations. But when 9/11 took place, Jones' tendency to go off the rails was too much, and cancellations poured in. "I went on the air and said, 'Those were controlled demolitions," he told Rolling Stone. "You just watched the government blow up the World Trade Center. I lost 70 percent of my affiliates that day. Station managers asked me, 'Do you want to be on this crusade going nowhere, or do you want to be a star?' I'm proud I never compromised."

While this style plays well with his acolytes, it has notably failed in several high-profile media appearances. During a January 2013 gun control discussion with CNN's Piers Morgan following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Jones practically foamed at the mouth while shouting Morgan down.

Invited on the show partly as a result of his online petition to deport Morgan, a British citizen, because of Morgan’s support for a nationwide ban on military-style assault weapons, Jones was unrelenting from the start. He dove into a rambling diatribe involving [[Stalin]], [[Hitler]], [[Mao Zedong]], black helicopters, megabanks, rape in India, and psychologists who overprescribe drugs. "I'm here to tell you," he literally shouted, "1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! It doesn't matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street, begging to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them! Do you understand?"<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ror9v2LwHoY Alex Jones on guns in America (2013)], ''CNN''</ref>

Several months later, in June 2013, an unchastened Jones was at it again during a discussion on the BBC's “Sunday Politics” show about the Bilderberg Group, which was having its annual meeting in Watford, United Kingdom, and is one of Jones' prime villains in the globalist financial conspiracy. As the segment ended with Jones once again shouting at the top of his lungs, exasperated presenter Andrew Neil proclaimed, “You are the worst person I have ever interviewed,” and "We have an idiot on the show today," while twirling his fingers around his ear.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch9gQ9JOe3Y Alex Jones goes nuts on the BBC. Andrew Neil calls him an idiot & 'worst person ever interviewed']</ref>

Such meltdowns do little to advance Jones' cause with a mainstream audience. But in his view, most of this audience consists of consumerist "sheeple" who don't think for themselves. He believes that he is speaking truth to power, galvanizing the “sheeple” into joining enlightened liberty-loving patriots (his audience) in opposing the growing tyranny. It's a classic come-on: I know something you don't. Jones manipulates the psychological fears of the vulnerable into complete acceptance of nearly anything he says – regardless of how loony it may be. Wrapping himself in the American flag (the people's flag, not the government's), he invokes Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as his icons.

An unsuccessful Republican candidate for a Texas House seat in 2000, Jones describes himself as a libertarian who stands apart from the "bogus political labels of left and right." He views himself as an "aggressive constitutionalist," defending individual liberties, the Bill of Rights, property rights, and the security of U.S. borders against illegal immigrant hordes being ushered in by evil forces bent on destroying our society. Regarding illegal immigrants, he was quoted by ''Esquire'' saying: "They're here to give corporations subsidized low wages — because they can't live on the low wages they get, so they give them the welfare, and that's designed to give the big corporations an unfair trading advantage. They're using poverty as a tool of control."

And while Jones "officially" disavows [[racism]], he sometimes walks a fine line in his pronouncements. In August 2011, he featured an article on Infowars that called the Department of Homeland Security’s “If you see something, say something” [[terrorism]]-awareness campaign a racist conspiracy to “characterize predominantly white, middle class, politically engaged Americans as domestic extremists.”

The program, which actually encourages people to consider “behavior, rather than appearance” when considering whether to report suspicious activity, entailed a series of public service announcements designed to drive home that point. What piqued Jones was a videotaped 10-minute public service announcement in which most of the “terrorists” are white, while the citizens who report their suspicious activities are all minorities. He milked the issue for at least a month.

"What do you think of [DHS’] rebranding that the terrorists aren’t [[Al-Qaeda]] anymore?” he said on his Aug. 18 radio show. “It’s that veteran, it’s that gun owner, it’s that farmer … it’s that white person. Whites are the new Al Qaeda.”

Jones has also been sharply critical of same-sex marriage, tying it in a convoluted way to globalist aims and, like many religious-right organizations, [[pedophilia]]. 

Jones’ radio show and websites are chock full of ads for "recession-proof" investments in gold coins and other precious metals offered by a company called Midas Resources. Midas Resources is owned by Ted Anderson, who also owns the Genesis Communications Network, syndicator of “The Alex Jones Show.” Midas describes itself on its website as "[o]ne of the world's premiere precious metals firms, parent company of The Genesis Communications Network, proud sponsor of the Campaign For Liberty and creator of the Ron Paul Air Corps."

Jones is surely most infamous for his many predictions. The vast majority come to nothing, but he never stops reminding listeners of the one that came somewhat close. In July 2001, he predicted a major U.S. terrorist attack would occur soon and mentioned the World Trade Center and [[Osama Bin Laden]] by name. But, not surprisingly, his overall accuracy rate is infinitesimally low.

Here is a eye-popping example of that from his Feb.13, 2009, show: "They're going to have a biological event, whether they claim it was naturally occurring or whether some terrorist did it, and then only round up a few hundred thousand in a few counties somewhere, or have a beta test, have the army out, show it on the news, get everybody scared. They'll fix it, and then people will say, 'Oh my God, martial law is good, it saved us.' Then they'll have another attack that's bigger. It'll kill hundreds of thousands. Then they'll have martial law, it'll get fixed. Then they'll release the big one, and they'll kill probably half the population of the United States. Folks, I'm telling you right now, I'm sure of it. They're going to stage terror attacks. I will be very surprised if they don't stage something by the end of this year.”

Here are a few other Jones predictions that failed to materialize: At least 15 European nations will collapse in the next 16 months (prediction made on Feb. 28, 2010); staged terror attacks will occur April 15 or 19 to coincide with the release of anti-Tea Party documentaries on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and HBO (March 3, 2010); and the U.S. dollar will be devalued by 50% within two years (May 23, 2010).

Jones continues to see the specter of a globalist "New World Order" in almost every major and minor event that occurs in the United States. Following the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., in early 2016, he made numerous comments claiming that some of the occupiers were likely government or “Foundation” provocateurs. These supposed infiltrators, according to Jones, were acting on behalf of and at the direction of the Obama administration and globalist elites whose ultimate goal is the institution of Martial Law and the total end to American sovereignty.
==Support of Donald Trump==
In December 2015, Jones says he initially "formed a bond" with Donald Trump, after the presidential candidate appeared on ''The Alex Jones Show'', with Trump stating "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down." During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton criticized Trump for his ties to Jones.

He indicated his support for Trump during the presidential campaign in 2016, also denouncing Trump's rival Hillary Clinton, whilst running a campaign attacking her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as a rapist. He designed a T-shirt, ran another "get on MSM" competition and even gate-crashed The Young Turks set at the RNC, whilst displaying the T-shirt, resulting in a physical altercation with Cenk Uygur. Jones said that Trump called him on the day after the election to thank him for his help in the campaign.

Following the 2016 Republican National Convention, Jones wanted Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to be removed from his Senate seat after he failed to endorse Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate. Potential primary challengers Katrina Pierson and Dan Patrick were discussed as replacement Republican candidates for the 2018 Texas election for Senate.

In April 2018, Jones publicly criticized President Trump during a livestream, after Trump announced a military strike against Syria. During the stream, Jones also stated that Trump had not called him during the prior six months. A leaked interview of Jones in January 2019 expressing displeasure over his relationship with Trump was released by the Southern Poverty Law Center in March 2021, with Jones stating "I wish I never would have fucking met Trump ... I'm so sick of fucking Donald Trump, man. God, I'm fucking sick of him." Nevertheless, he backed the president during his re-election campaign in 2020 and called on demonstrations to be held on the premise the election had been "rigged" against Trump, and voiced his support for the [[Stop the Steal movement]]. Jones eventually fully withdrew his support for Trump in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After Trump recommended at an August 2021 rally that people choose to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Jones said that Trump was either lying or "not that bright" and "a dumbass". In December 2021, Trump announced that he had received the vaccine. Jones responded by calling him "a terrorist in league with [[Josef Mengele]]" and a member of the New World Order.
===Involvement in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol===
Jones partially funded and raised other funds to finance the January 6, 2021 Trump rally in Washington that preceded the 2021 United States Capitol attack. Jones attended the January 5 and 6 rallies at the capitol. 

On January 5, he was a scheduled speaker at the March to Save America and said, "We have only begun to resist the globalists. We have only begun our fight against their tyranny. They have tried to steal this election in front of everyone." And "I don't know how this is all going to end, but if they want to fight, they better believe they've got one," Jones said that night, according to the same video.

The next day, Wednesday, January 6, at a gathering in Lafayette Park north of the Capitol, he addressed the crowd with a bullhorn, and stated that he had seen "over a hundred" members of [[Antifa]] in the crowd, a baseless assertion other Trump supporters had also made, even though the FBI has said there was no evidence of antifa involvement. 

The same day, a video of Jones was posted ''InfoWars'', in which he is recorded saying "We declare 1776 against the new world order.... We need to understand we're under attack, and we need to understand this is 21st-century warfare and get on a war-footing...". In the same video, before setting off toward the Capitol building, Jones told the crowd: "We're here to take our rightful country back peacefully, because we're not globalist, antifa criminals. So let's start marching, and I salute you all." When rioters attacked the Capitol, Jones called on them to stop. "Let's not fight the police and give the system what they want," he said.

In February 2021, ''The Washington Post'' reported that the FBI was investigating any role Jones might have played in influencing the participation of [[Proud Boys]], [[Boogaloo Boys|Boogaloo movement]] and [[Oath Keepers]] members in the incursion. Jones had previously hosted leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers on his programs. Some members of the groups had been indicted for conspiracy in the incident.

[[Owen Shroyer]], one of Jones's ''Infowars'' co-hosts, was arrested in August 2021 for allegedly being part of the riot. Shroyer had previously given a speech about being "ready to fight" outside the White House the day before.

==Other views and claims==
*Jones has promoted both the [[Great Replacement]] theories. ''Media Matters'' covered his claim that NFL players protesting during the national anthem were "kneeling to white genocide" and violence against whites, which the SPLC covered in their headlines review.<ref>[https://www.bing.com/search?q=media+matters+alex+jones+kneeling+to+white+genocide&cvid=e3681a0ae72a4b0d89b1834cf036837d&aqs=edge..69i57.8856j0j4&FORM=ANAB01&PC=HCTS Alex Jones: Protesting NFL players are “kneeling to white genocide”], ''Media Matters For America''</ref><ref>[https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/09/27/hatewatch-headlines-9272017 Hatewatch Headlines 9/27/2017], ''Southern Poverty Law Center''</ref>
**On October 2, 2017, Jones claimed that Democrats and communists were plotting imminent "white genocide" attacks. His reporting and public views on the topic have received support and coverage from white nationalist publications and groups, such as the AltRight Corporation and the New Zealand National Front.
*Jones is known for both his [[Anti-vaxxers|opposition to vaccines]], and his views on vaccine controversies. 
**On June 16, 2017, Vox covered his claim that the introduction of the Sesame Street character Julia, an autistic Muppet, was "designed to normalize autism, a disorder caused by vaccines."<ref>[https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/20/15295822/alex-jones-fans-climate-change-vaccines-science I talked to Alex Jones fans about climate change and vaccines. Their views may surprise you.], ''Vox''</ref>
**On November 20, 2017, ''The New Yorker'' quoted Jones as claiming ''InfoWars'' was "defending people's right to not be forcibly infected with vaccines". Critics argue that he endangers "children by convincing their parents that vaccines are dangerous."<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/jordan-kleppers-comic-conspiracy Jordan Klepper's Comic Conspiracy], ''The New Yorker''</ref>
**Jones has specifically disputed the safety and effectiveness of MMR vaccines.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/06/anti-vaccine-activists-waging-primordial-cosmic-war-despite-measles-backlash Anti-vaccine activists waging 'primordial cosmic war' despite measles backlash], ''The Guardian''</ref>
**After Donald Trump recommended at an August 2021 rally that people choose to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Jones accused him of being "one of the most evil men who ever lived" and "[[Josef Mengele]] 2.0".<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2021/12/26/alex-jones-slams-donald-trump-for-telling-the-truth-about-the-covid-19-vaccine/?sh=6eba8e242e3b Alex Jones Slams Donald Trump For Telling The Truth About The COVID-19 Vaccine], ''Forbes''</ref>
**During a December 2021 episode of ''InfoWars'', Jones called the coronavirus vaccine an "experimental, Nuremberg Code-violating vaccine" and made references to a "Satanic alien attack".
*While Jones initially supported [[QAnon]],<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/how-storm-biggest-fake-news-story-796725 How 'the Storm' Became the Biggest Fake News Story of 2018], ''Newsweek''</ref> Right Wing Watch reported that he had ceased to support QAnon by May 2018, declaring the source "completely compromised".<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/stick-a-fork-in-qanon-alex-jones-and-jerome-corsi-claim-that-qanon-has-been-completely-compromised/ Stick A Fork In QAnon: Alex Jones And Jerome Corsi Claim That QAnon Has Been 'Completely Compromised'], ''Right Wing Watch''</ref> In 2021, after the Capitol attack, Jones denounced believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory on ''InfoWars''.<ref>[https://www.newsweek.com/alex-jones-qanon-rant-viral-infowars-1560394 Alex Jones' QAnon rant watched over two million times: "I'm sick of it!"], ''Newsweek''</ref>
*He has promoted [[COVID denialism]] and has described COVID-19 as a "hoax" a number of times.
*Jones was also the main proponent of "[[Pizzagate]]", a conspiracy theory claiming that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party were running a child [[Human Trafficking|human trafficking]] ring out of the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington D.C. This lead to a man named [[Edgar Maddison Welch]] entering the restaurant with a semi-automatic rifle on December 4, 2016 and opening fire; thankfully, no one was injured.
*Jones has also claimed on a few occasions that the [[Communist Party of China]] has gained control of the Democratic Party and that China’s current paramount leader, [[Xi Jinping]], "owns" Hollywood.

==References==
[[Category:Modern Villains]]
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