MAGA conspiracy theorists must be thrilled Elon Musk got Alex Jones back on X
I’d guess that Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers cheered when Elon Musk restored the X account of what may be the most vile human being in America, Alex Jones.
On second thought, I take that back.
I should not have said Alex Jones may be the most vile human being in America.
I should have said Alex Jones IS the most vile human being in America.
This is a man, after all, who said on his radio and online shows that the murder of 20 first graders and six teachers had been staged by the federal government. That it was fake.
Alex Jones said vile things about Sandy Hook
He used his media platform to lie about the slaughter of 6-year-olds and essentially unleashed his massive audience of gullible birdbrains upon the grieving families. All to make a buck.
“Sandy Hook is synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured,” Jones said.
This is a man who also claimed that the 9/11 attacks were staged by the U.S. government, a man who said the government is using chemicals to create gay people.
The parents of the dead children at Sandy Hook Elementary sued him. And won.
Alex Jones finally faces consequences. Hateful lies have to come with a cost.
Recently, a judge said that Jones cannot weasel out of the more than $1 billion in compensatory and punitive damages he owes the victims’ families for repeatedly defaming them by claiming that the 2012 killings were a hoax, staged with actors as part of a government plot to seize guns.
No one with an ounce of decency would disagree with the judge’s decision or with the jury verdict that got him there.
Naturally, Arizona's election denier Sen. Wendy Rogers defended Jones
This more or less leaves only Arizona’s Wendy Rogers.
When Jones first lost his case, she wrote online:
“It’s wrong what they did to Alex Jones. He should be able to criticize the official story any time he wants. I hope he appeals the verdicts because the kangaroo courts already made him guilty before the trials started. Americans should help cover his bills. Sick of censorship!”
That shouldn’t surprise anyone in Arizona.
Jones was welcomed here when the MAGA conspiracy nuts were trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump supporter threatened AZ officials: He's a Trump supporter who threatened officials over 2020 election. I asked him why.
Alex Jones spewed 2020 election conspiracies
He incited a crowd of protesters outside the Maricopa County elections center, using a bullhorn to spout the unproven nonsense being supported and spewed by Arizona Republicans like Rogers, Kari Lake, U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, and on and on.
These politicians were happy to have Jones on their team.
And now Musk has decided that saying the worst possible thing, and causing the families of murdered children the worst possible pain, is not reason enough to prevent Jones from getting back onto X, formerly Twitter.
Interesting, however, that Republicans who’ve been screeching to cancel the presidents of three Ivy League schools – for failing to forcefully say that “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct – have said nothing, expressed zero outrage, about Musk rewarding a man who lied and defamed parents about the massacre of their children.
Maybe Jones isn't the most vile human
Wait … I’m rethinking things again.
Maybe putting Alex Jones in the “most vile human” category was a mistake, after all.
That moniker more correctly belongs to the people who enable him, defend him, associate with him or fail to condemn him.
EJ Montini is a columnist at The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, where this column first published. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Alex Jones is back on X. MAGA election deniers must be thrilled
