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Q1: Why is Alex Jones described as a far-right conspiracy theorist?
A1: The preponderance of reliable sources describes him as this.
"The case of Mr. Jones and Infowars is tricky for many politicians and figures on the right. While many dislike the idea of tech companies censoring political speech, and Infowars leans far right, Mr. Jones regularly spreads lies, conspiracy theories and inflammatory attacks against political enemies." ----The New York Times
"Kaiser, the Harvard researcher, said that Jones was a far-right 'beacon' -- a sort of gateway who could bring conservatives looking for right-wing media into the extreme fringes via YouTube's recommendations." --CNBC
"Twitter banned far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his website InfoWars from its platform Thursday afternoon" --CNN
"Twitter announced Thursday that it had banned the accounts of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his far-right media company Infowars" --NBC News
"Facebook today removed 22 pages associated with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones" --The Verge
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Let's review, shall we?
Let's review for our newly-arrived Infowars/Newswars/Prison Planet minions, shall we? Alex Jones claims that the US government kidnaps children and makes them slaves at our martian colony, that kids are only pretending to get shot at school and their parents are only pretending to grieve, that Michelle Obama is really a man, that Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame was killed to boost DVD sales, that the coming New World Order is a demonic high-tech tyranny formed by satanist elites who are using selective breeding to create a supreme race, that tap water is turning frogs gay, that Coronavirus is a hoax, that 5G networks create Coronavirus within human cells (no explanation about the conflict between those last two), that Temple of Baal arches will be erected in multiple cities around the world Real Soon Now, that the Democratic party runs a pedophile ring through pizza shops, that the US government commits acts of terrorism against its own citizens, that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are literally demons from hell, that the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami were a government plot, that Obama wanted to detonate a nuclear bomb in Charleston, South Carolina, that FEMA runs concentration camps, that the US is being invaded by South American walruses... Sounds legit to me! --Guy Macon (talk) 12:46, 21 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Comments / questions
Q: Isn't Jones just an actor playing a role without actually believing all of that?
Alex Jones himself has said he doesn’t support the far-right. Listen to him on Joe Rogan, then you can make assumptions. He personally protested against conservative candidates. While he does focus on many conspiracies, he is more centrist than any other radio host. This is just pure misinformation peddled by people who don’t want to hear what he has to say. Skolian (talk) 20:36, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Nope. You generally don't use quotation marks unless you are quoting someone or using scare quotes.
"Right-leaning media outlets and politicians are regularly among the top performing posters on Facebook, and while the platform has occasionally removed “extremely online” far-right figures like Alex Jones and Laura Loomer, they can usually point to a violation of a policy as the reason."[5]
As the author of the article Extremely Online (which I started a couple days ago), I will say this: the phrase is often used in quotes (other references from the article can attest to this); I can pretty emphatically say that they're not quoting an official statement from Facebook. That said, I don't know that its inclusion in this article is DUE, at least not with this level of sourcing. (I am going to trawl for some more sources for the main article later and I expect to find some that can back this up, since Alex Jones is absolutely an Extremely Online dude). jp×g10:23, 20 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
You may want to not take such a hard line on this. The article does have room for some cleaning and pruning. it’s one thing to be cover a controversy factually. Another entirely to pile political ideology one way or another. You’ll also historically note I’m not some random person. I didn’t come from anyone’s site. I got here looking up the name to find info on his family. This is slanted and could use some cleaningLostinlodos (talk) 23:43, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I will take you at your word that you are not am Alex Jones fan, (despite you writing things like "I don't consider cbs or Washington Post calling in infowars fake any more credible than infowars calling CNN or cbs fake"[6]) but the fact is that (along with a lot of what look like good edits in the areas of film and technical articles) you appear to be supporter of pseudoscience in areas such as Atlantis,[7] additive-free tobacco[8][9], Holocaust denial[10], and the Pizzagate conspiracy theory[11]
So let me ask you up front? Do you believe that the Democratic party ran a pedophile ring through a pizza shop? That FEMA runs concentration camps? Are Wikipedia's articles about holocaust denial, cryptozoology, and the dangers of smoking additive-free tobacco accurate? --Guy Macon (talk) 01:47, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I’d be happy to reply to that. CNN has lost much of its credibility in coverage the last 5 years well beyond Trump coverage. Their sinking ratings shows it’s more than trump supporters who have tuned out. Atlantis is a mystery. Like gods until their is proof it’s purely faith. That doesn’t make searching for the possibility any less scientific. there is little scientific doubt additive free tobacco is safer than tobacco with additives. It’s not necessarily safe but definitely safer The Holocaust numbers are debatable. There’s no doubt the mass internment of Jews happened. Or that they were the primary Nazi target. But nearly all focus ignores the tens-to-hundreds of thousands of ‘others’ also interned. Such as Protestants, gays, and Muslims. The numbers are also in dispute. Pizzagate has never been backed with evidence. It remains a conspiracy Theory unless someone does present evidence. For all of FEMA’s many faults it’s extremely unlikely they run concentration camps. Nor did I ever say they did. I remain unconvinced that the cryptozoology must be approached so one-sided. There is plenty of evidence that respectable science, so to speak, has some lingering interest. The same term that covers the ‘search’ for Mothman and the Jackalope also covers those looking for presumed extinct species and hairy hominids. New species are found every day. Many by those looking for something else entirely.
Questioning and supporting are different things. That doesn’t change the opening of this article which appears to focus not on the man but on the viewpoint of his views. Rather than get into an editing war to neutralise what is apparently a hot issue at the moment let me make some suggestions: Removing rebuttal from selected individuals regarding his political party stance from the opening. Reduce the conspiracy listing in the opening and move it to the article proper. It doesn’t need to be covered twice. fake news isn’t necessarily the best choice of words. Finding an alternative expression or using a non politicised source claiming he is supplying “fake news” would help that. Mother Jones is self described as Progressive and their reporting methods are constantly questioned. Purely sourcing from one ideology is part of the issue with many articles in their current form. There are plenty of less grandiose “right wing” condemnations of his media outlets to pull from. Lostinlodos (talk) 02:41, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Mother Jones does not claim NASA is shipping children to a slave colony on Mars, that lizard people control the government, and that the Democratic party (and a pizza restaurant) is a front for satanic child molesters. The most salient characteristic of Alex Jones is nutty conspiracy theories. Watering down the article does not improve reader understanding and the lead should include important points. O3000 (talk) 12:11, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]