More proof that Alex Jones is your enemy

Alex Jones had Brietbartian hit man (and convicted criminal) James O'Keefe on his program. During the proceedings, O'Keefe referred to his liberal opponents as "fascists."

That's pretty funny. Jones himself pushes the John Birch Society agenda (his father belonged to the society) -- and the JBS was the post-war manifestation of the American fascist movement of the 1930s. (See the previous posts here and here.) To this day, the Birchers idolize Henry Ford, without whom there would never have been a Nazi party in Germany. (This under-reported history is outlined in an excellent book titled Who Financed Hitler?)

Of course, this humble blog has talked about O'Keefe's spooky operation in the past: Here and here. Perhaps the best work on O'Keefe's odious behavior has been done by Brad Friedman, who has published too many articles on this topic to cite; I would direct you first to here, then here, then here, here, and finally here.

So here's what happened when Alex met Jimmie:

Jones said President Barack Obama, the media, liberal bloggers and commenters on liberal web sites had conspired to shut out viewpoints like O’Keefe and his own.

In other words, when a guy like Brad Friedman (who is really just one man operating out of a small apartment) exposes some truths about O'Keefe that O'Keefe doesn't want people to know about, Friedman must be operating as part of...gasp! shudder!...a CONSPIRACY! (In fact, Friedman has invited O'Keefe to appear on one of his radio programs.)

“Now it’s happening here, and the Democrat sides are laughing at us, and the commenters are like, ‘Good, we’re going to arrest you all,’ and it’s like, these people, I guarantee you, are wimps, No. 1, I mean, they’ve never really sat there and arrested anybody,” Jones said. “They’ve never falsely charged someone, most of these people. They’ve never been in, like, a serious situation. They’re just sitting back, playing the part of, like, Gestapo gangsters, literally not understanding they’re destroying their own future.”

This spew would be more risible if it were more comprehensible.

The host asked O’Keefe if he held out any hope that the liberal agenda could be defeated.

“Who do you think the Democrats really are, and what is their end game?” Jones asked. “Can they be stopped or are they just too criminally powerful and too cunningly evil to be stopped?”

This next bit is really funny:

Jones then returned to the topic that had opened his segment, a rant against what he saw as Satanic and immoral musical performances during Sunday’s Grammy telecast.

“Hollywood is putting out this psychological bilge as a disabling mental virus because if you are virtuous — and I’m not saying I’m perfect, but somewhat virtuous — you don’t like corruption,” Jones said.

“You don’t like thugs, you don’t like bullies, you don’t like fraud, you’re discerning, reality rules your life, and you just absolutely will reject the collectivist dependency squalor that these people create and that’s why they’re trying to sexualize 5-year-olds, and that’s why they’re having Satanic rituals at the Super Bowl and at the Grammys,” Jones said. “That’s why they’re doing this is to screw us up.”

Yeah. Yeaaaahhhhhh.

Call me naive, but I don't think Hollywood has anything to do with "Satanic rituals at the Super Bowl." And although I didn't see the show, I doubt that there was a plot to create "collectivist dependency squalor" at the Grammys.

Personally, I don't care for either football or popular music, so I can't speak with any detailed expertise about what goes on in those worlds. But I do know this -- what happens in those worlds always comes down to one simple mantra: "Give the audience what it wants." That which is popular makes money; that which isn't, doesn't.

You know another name for that? Capitalism. In a very real sense, what Jones calls "Hollywood" is the most formidable bastion of capitalism in America.

Sure, much of popular culture appeals to the lowest and most venal aspects of human nature. That, I am sorry to say, is what people want.

Some people later feel ashamed of themselves for wanting such things. If you are an entertainment consumer beset with buyer's remorse, my advice is simple: Blame yourself. Don't blame some imaginary conspiracy.

Nobody forces anyone at gunpoint to watch the damned Grammys or to download to some inane pop song. Nothing stops you from living your life as I live it, with the ethereal and elevated music of Anton Bruckner constantly coursing through a pair of headphones. If you find yourself mired in cultural muck, please understand that you chose to be there. If you think the Illuminati put you there, you're telling yourself a lie.

Alex Jones is apparently sincere in his belief that the world is run by the followers of Old Scratch. Indeed, his pursuit of that belief has led to some rather amusing results. This worldview is, of course, nonsense.

Or...is it? Are there devilish forces at work?

Whenever I contemplate Alex Jones' success in spreading psychosis throughout the land, the whole business seems downright infernal. He certainly has done everything he can to spread the kind of crankish beliefs that are ruining the American experiment and tearing the citizenry apart. (The rational cannot engage in productive dialogue with the mad.) Jones has, in short, helped this country go to Hell.

I'll close by describing Jones' most damnable recent escapade.

On November 22, 2013, Alex Jones -- bullhorn in hand -- stood as close as he could get to Dealey Plaza, shouting his usual conspiratorial horsey-boom-boom. Speaking as someone sympathetic to the real researchers who have critiqued the Warren Commission, I want to stress: Alex Jones does not represent us. Jones is a right-wing Texan who spouts paranoid nonsense about Satanic conspiracies, "Gestapo" liberals and "cunningly evil" Democrats. In 1963, people who thought that way applauded the president's murder. JFK himself would have had nothing but contempt for such an individual.

By the way: One or two writers whom I would consider "real researchers" of the JFK assassination have appeared on Jones' show. They should be ashamed of themselves. One can learn a lot from the essays and books of Peter Dale Scott, but he jeopardizes his credibility whenever he shows a distressingly high tolerance for low company.

Postscript: If Jones wants to decry all that is "collectivist," shouldn't he denounce the sport of football? And perhaps even the entire concept of team sports? I'll say it again: Every time I've heard someone say "There is no I in 'TEAM'" (a phrase which is arguably the ultimate expression of collectivism), the speaker was a right-winger.