Fans of the conspiracy theory-bolstering show InfoWars might be devastated to learn that in a court of law, an attorney representing host Alex Jones argued that the show is “performance art,” and that Jones himself is a “performance artist.”
The argument for the classification of the show was made during court proceedings regarding Jones’ personal life – a custody hearing regarding his three children.
Jones’ wife Kelly Jones is seeking sole custody of the couple’s three children, a 14-year old son and two daughters, 9 and 12. In her testimony, Jones argued that her estranged husband exposes their children to his violent, mad ravings daily.
“He’s not a stable person. He says he wants to break Alec Baldwin’s neck. He wants J-Lo to get raped. I’m concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of Congress. He broadcasts from home. The children are there, watching him broadcast.”
Indeed, anyone who has ever watched even a small segment of Jones’ vitriol would believe it is wholly unsuitable for children, and the thousands who faithfully follow his rants and buy his strange enhancement supplements would likely be incredibly devastated to learn that what they view as “news” is really “entertainment.”
Still, the argument that anything and everything Jones has bellowed on his online show is dismissable under the umbrella of entertainment is to ignore the real-world consequences his rantings have had.
Jones is a leader in many damaging conspiracies, including Pizzagate and the belief that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. To Jones’ audience, his argument that Democrats are leading an underground sex scandal out of a pizza shop is truth, not satire. To them, the idea that the government would stage the death of children and hire actors as grieving parents is the real news.
Daily, Jones engages in radicalizing his supporters – could it be argued that he is placing his children in harm’s way by exposing them, too, to his “entertainment”? That is what his estranged wife is seeking to do, and there seems to be ample evidence to indicate it’s true. Jones showed a clip from one of the host’s 2015 shows in which he calls his then 12-year-old son onto the air and expresses his intentions for his son to join his industry.
“I love you so much, and I didn’t mean to get you up here, sweetheart, and tell people how much I love you, but you’re so handsome, and you’re a good little knight who’s going to grow up, I know, to be a great fighter against the enemy.”
Whether it be his minor children or his online audience, Jones is daily engaging in active indoctrination of anyone who views InfoWars. No matter what an attorney argues about the entertainment value of the show, the results of that entertainment has been anything but.
