this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024

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Alex Jones is profiting from his new game on Steam — while refusing to pay the Sandy Hook families he defamed (www.mediamatters.org)

submitted 10 months ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Following his trial for defamation of the families of the children and school staff killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is using Valve Corp.’s Steam, the world’s largest digital distribution platform for PC games, to sell an Infowars-themed video game. Jones claims to have earned hundreds of thousands in revenue from the video game, yet he has refused to pay the Sandy Hook families. Alex Jones: NWO Wars also mirrors and cartoonishly repackages the conspiracy theorist’s regularly violent, hateful rhetoric despite the platform’s policies against hate speech.

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[–] Subverb@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I'll take this opportunity to plug a tiny podcast that I stumbled onto called "Some Dare Call it Conspiracy". It's hosted by two English guys that were hard-core conspiracy theorists for 15 years.

They now discuss, debunk and interview people around the conspiracy life. It's really fascinating to learn about Pizzagate, Chemtrails, Hunter Biden's Laptop and Jeffery Epstein from very knowledgeable people but in an environment of debunking.

Their latest episode is an interview with Rob Jacobson, a former staffer for Alex Jones that worked for him for 12 years. Jacobson ended up testifying against Jones in the Sandy Hook trial. The episode is on their Patreon at the moment but will roll out to the general public in a few days. Fascinating stuff and Jones is every bit as shady as one expects.

[–] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'm a huge Knowledge Fight fan. And your recommendation sounds right up my alley.

KF is a podcast done "the dollop style" with the broadcasts of Alex Jones, both modern and years old episodes. Dan Freissen has listened to 1000s of hours infowars, has read None Dare Call It a Conspiracy (which is why the recommendation perked my ears), has read Protocols of the Elders of Zion, "you name it".

He shows how AJ's Globalizist conspiracy is just a reskinning of old antisemitic writings.

Dan was flown to Texas to help the lawyers of the Sandy Hook defamation trial. I can't say enough about how much I respect him.

Btw, by "the dollop style", I mean comedian Dan Friessen tells his findings to comedian Jordan Holmes who is naïve on the topic.

Edit: Knowledge Fight has zero ads. Never has. No paywalls. They have no interest in sensationalizing. It feels very honest.

I'll link the episode most inline with this article. #602 with Sandy Hook lead counsel Mark Bankston.

It seems like you folks like Behind the Bastards. They've been guests a few times. Here's one Part One: How The Rich Ate Christianity

Edit: I wanted to clarify the relevance of #602. That came out in 2021, right after the default judgement was issued in Texas. I believe the lawyers never gave interviews until that ruling. I listened back. It's a neat little time capsule. Just skip ahead until you hear Mark Bankston speak if it's your first taste.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can you link directly to the pizzagate one. I've never heard a good debunk beyond "there is no basement so nothing is true".

[–] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The short answer is no. I can't think of when tried a pizzagate debunking. (They are going on 900 episodes.) I do distinctly remember an early episode when they analyze an undercover Periscope video inside Comet Ping Pong.

For a hopefully longer, but slower, answer, I made a thread asking the small community on lemmy.world.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't believe Pizzagate was ever bunked, or debunked. The problem is that there are so many claims made that a rigorous debunk is difficult and time consuming.

The best attempt was NY Times that covered some details but cherry picked the claims it could debunk and completely ignored others.

Rolling Stones made a feeble effort spending most of the article on how the story spread, not it's veracity.

[–] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In the body of the thread a posted on c/knowledgefight, I bring up that I didn't care about pizzagate because there really no damages. No victims coming forward. No suspicious activity. Nothing.

The only thing interesting about pizzagate is how strongly people can hold on to beliefs with zero backing. I'm sure 99% of posts about pizzagate are LARPing really. (I think the same of Flat Earth. At least, way back when.) But we know how seriously some people belief it.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say, the fact there is no evidence backing it up is precisely why this stuff is so dangerous. If some one is mentally unsteady enough to accept any reason to hate their enemies, they are probably pretty dangerous to be around already. Now use a massive media operation so that person need no other source of news. He (sorry to be sexist, but I'm going to stick with "he" for the easily influenced viewer's pronoun) knows he's right. He hears nothing but that he is right. However, out in the dangerous part of the world, no one cares about this. It's so fucking easy to dismiss this stuff. Why would anyone believe it?

This feels like persecution, gaslighting, and like "they" are all in on it. That's fucking powder-keg as we saw in this matter.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

the body of the thread a posted on c/knowledgefight,

I'll take a listen to the podcast, but I think you are right in that it's only tangentially relevant. Although it's existence shows the topic won't die easily.

No victims coming forward.

Such a bad argument. Are you expecting an abused kid to file a police report? Look at Epstein's Virginia Giuffre who is now 40! At least the guardian's of the kids in the Instagram photos should have been questioned.

No suspicious activity.

There was enough to send 4chan and reddit into a frenzy. I think you mean that there was no definitive proof.

The only thing interesting about pizzagate is how strongly people can hold on to beliefs with zero backing.

I thought the most interesting thing was how hard the pushback was. Pizza owners on the news, 10 min features on Colbert, NYT and Rolling Stone articles, banning of subreddits and censoring of search results. Try to find the steemit article I linked above. There was a well organised PR campaign against "nothing".

I suspect some of the conclusions being drawn from highly circumstantial evidence were too close to the truth for some influential people's comfort.

I'm sure 99% of posts about pizzagate are LARPing really.

Initially all politicians were suspected (e.g. Hastert is republican). It turned into a right wing topic after qanon stoked the fires.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say, the fact there is no evidence backing it up is precisely why this stuff is so dangerous.

True. On the other hand, vigilantism occurs when the police say they've investigated but actually haven't. (Sorry impossible to back this statement in 2024. If you doubt me, find some official DC police reports unrelated to the gunman attack)

However, out in the dangerous part of the world, no one cares about this. It's so fucking easy to dismiss this stuff. Why would anyone believe it?

It happened in Belgium, UK, France, Portugal etc. People there cared. Why not also in the US?

This feels like persecution, gaslighting, and like "they" are all in on it.

Podesta and Alefantis have certainly been persecuted by the Internet. And probably still are being 8 years later. Their no comment policy certainly backfired.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org -2 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Omg, you're one of them! Lol. Take me to your magic kingdom.

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[–] stratosfear@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ugh, I was so excited for this ... And at about 20 minutes into the first chemtrail episode they say contrails are the exhaust fumes coming out of engines :facepalm:

[–] Subverb@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That doesnt square with the fact that these guys were hard-core conspiracy theorists? 😂😂

[–] stratosfear@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 10 months ago

Haha good point, at least they are trying 😏

[–] yesman@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Look, people need something to play after they've finished Hogwarts Legacy.

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What's up with Hogwarts legacy? It's one of the most progressive minded games I've ever played, so much so that J.K.Rowling herself tried to taint it by saying money that went to that game supported her views instead of the views in the game. Even though she doesn't get any residuals from sales. She tried to tank sales to get back at them for making an open minded game instead of one that aligns with her views.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago

It’s one of the most progressive minded games I’ve ever played

That is such an incredibly low bar. What passes as progressive values in AAA games is just a shoehorned and saccharine checklist progressiveness. I can almost understand why the chuds get annoyed because playing some games can be like bad corporate DEI training.

Right wing ideology meanwhile is baked into gameplay. It doesn't matter much if the themes are anti-racist so long as every problem can be solved with the right gun. It doesn't matter if you're a socialist state in a strategy game who's economy is straight out of the Chicago school.

A couple games get it right. "This War of Mine" shows you what's happening in the out of bounds areas of Call of Duty. "Darkest Dungeon" is a microscope on the exploitation of capitalism. But good luck finding something like this in the AAA space.

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