The return of the pink elephant

 

Alex Jones apparently wants to remove Trump by impeachment or the 25th amendment. Cuz Iran-Israel something something.

Oh.

For the record. Sorry for the self-referential title of this blog post!

2 words, 1 finger

 

It seems the Alex Jones era is finally over. InfoWars have definitely been taken over by the satirical liberal magazine The Onion. The new owners have even hired an Alex Jones impersonator, who will presumably make fun of the real one. But for how long? I don´t think the concept can last for more than a couple of episodes. Not even sure if anyone gives a damn about Alex Jones in 2026. It´s not 2006 anymore, guys...

Night of the long knives

 

Donald Trump finally purges his "Strasserites". Apparently, the Great Leader went nuclear on Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Candace Owens and some other Alt Right influencers who oppose his war on Iran. If "MAGA" means something like "isolationist conservative populism with some QAnon fringes", then MAGA is now definitely over. At least as a Trump-centric movement broadly within the Republican Party. 

However, I suspect The Young Turks (link above) are wrong when predicting that this will affect the midterms. No, it won´t. Most GOP voters - including those who support Trump - seem to back the Iran War. The Democrats might win, of course, but for other reasons, not because of a so-called "split in MAGA". At least not if MAGA is defined in the sense above. *That* MAGA is a small current. 

That being said, US politics can take strange turns (cough cough), so predicting anything at this point might be a fool´s errand. But that´s my foolish two cents!   

Our Alex Jones predicament

 

For those who have X. An entire thread on Alex Jones´ curious transmogrification from conspiracy theory doyen extraordinaire (and llama tamer) to some kind of basic bitch admin operative. 

Michael Tracey (and others) on Alex Jones 

Alex Jones + Sauron = true?

 

Progressive commentator Stephen Woodford attacks Alex Jones, the crazy conspiracy theorist who is apparently more "realistic" these days... 

Donald Trump = Benedict Arnold?

 

Conspiracy theory, rumor, 4D chess to split "Europe" or get Canada? Who knows, but conspiracist nestor Alex Jones claims that the United Kingdom intends to invite the United States to join the British Commonwealth *and that Trump agrees with the initiative*. 

Jones doesn´t seem to understand that republics can join the Commonwealth and that Charles III doesn´t have executive power over the member-nations (unless they let him through their respective constitutions). 

Yet, even Jones admits later in the video that the Donald might simply be trolling! This is, after all, the same Trump who recently imposed tariffs on Canada, which does recognize Charles as their head of state... 

Alex Jones rants against the British Empire 

Changeling

 

Why aren´t there more conspiracy theories about J D Vance? This "man for all seasons" seems to have changed both his name, his looks and his views in order to become Trump´s veep. And his voice? And his body language?! 

*Is it really the same J D Vance that was elected senator for Ohio in 2022*? If Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has body doubles while Joe Biden had five of them, what are we to make of this?

Is it possible that the elected senator was an alien, while the current vice president is the human substitute? Maybe Alex Jones should take a look at this...  

Original Xweet

"God doesn´t know where he came from"

 

Joe Rogan interviews Alex Jones. Sounds like two old druggies discussing theology... 

The camelid conspiracy

 

An old classic: Alex Jones brings llamas (!) to his studio. 

QAnon: The Last Warning

The first link below goes to an "MSM" article on QAnon. Judging by this piece, QAnon has morphed from a heterogenous conspiracy milieu to something more resembling an apocalyptic cult.

"The Storm" is Judgement Day, Trump is the Messiah, and even the rhetoric sounds "Christian". Presumably, Pence is Judas and Biden the Anti-Christ.

The article points out that other conspiracy theorists are fed up with QAnon, including Alex Jones (I already linked to his reaction).

It will be interesting (if that's the right word for it) to see what happens when prophecy fails on January 20. The article assume that QAnon will collapse. I'm less sure. Apocalyptic religious movements might just as well continue as before *and even become more active* after their prophecies of impending doom fail to materialize. They just reinterpret their prophecies.

See my review of "When Prophecy Fails" for more on this.

On the other hand, QAnon is (or was?) a milieu rather than a tightly-knit sect or cult, so perhaps their trajectory will be different...

Hopefully for the better!

(The other linked article deals with some of the concrete conspiracy scenarios.) 

Online far right movements fracture in the wake of Capitol riot

QAnon falsehoods move to text message chains

Alex Jones aint happy yo

It seems Alex Jones isn't too happy about QAnon. From Twitter.

Apparently, Jones was at the 6 January protests in DC and tried to de-escalate the situation.

Interesting! 

When your conspiracy theory is too much even for Alex Jones

In another dimension

This is a funny and perhaps ironic T-shirt in support of Alex Jones, the controversial talk show host who recently became mega-popular after endorsing Donald Trump. Before that, he was mostly known for his wild conspiracy theories and for a guest appearance in Jon Ronson's book “Them: Adventures with Extremists”. Apparently, Ronson was present when Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove!

I admit that I laughed hard when I heard Jones' exposition on “the interdimensional beings” in a recent broadcast. It sounded like a garbled version of Rudolf Steiner's most outlandish speculations. Jones is either deeply esoteric or completely “out there”! However, he is right on one thing: there really are bizarre cults within the elite which do believe in Satanic techno-stuff. For more on those, see *another* book by his involuntary friend Ronson, “The Men Who Stare At Goats” or the even stranger oeuvre “The Stargate Conspiracy” by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. If the Satanist techno-stuff is real is, ahem, another thing entirely…

The pink elephant in the bar

Jon Ronson is a British gonzo journalist of Jewish descent who specializes in the comic, the absurd and the slightly disturbing. I admit that I loved his books “Them: Adventures with Extremists” and “The Men Who Stare at Goats”. In fact, they are probably the funniest books I've ever read. The latter book has even been remade into a Hollywood comedy! “Them” features the almost classical story of how Ronson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones manage to infiltrate Bohemian Grove and witness the infamous mock sacrifice to the owl god. Apparently, it was Jones' footage of the secret ceremony that originally propelled him into the conspiracist limelight.

“The Elephant in the Room”, an article only available on Kindle, is less funny. Written recently, it features Ronson's reunion with Alex Jones during the 2015-2016 Trump campaign. Gonzo is surprised to learn that Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and longstanding GOP operative Roger Stone are on a first name basis with Jones, effectively having drafted the conspiracy theory doyen into the Trumpista campaign. Ronson further reveals that Trump made a failed attempt to recruit the erratic talk show host Glenn Beck shortly before the real estate tycoon announced his campaign for the presidency.

A large part of the article deals with various incidents during the RNC in Cleveland, some of them also involving the ubiquitous Alex Jones. However, we have seen the incidents already on YouTube or Twitter, showing how much the media landscape has changed since Ronson wrote “Them”. I get the feeling that Ronson is losing his touch, while Jones has finally hit the big time! Weirdly, there is no mention at all of Paul Joseph Watson, Jones' British sidekick. Perhaps Ronson never got an interview with him? Or perhaps Watson was safe and sound in London, while Mr Gonzo was adventuring with extremists in MAGA…

Ronson seems bewildered by Trump's success and worried by his appeals to conspiracy thinking. He doesn't seem to understand that Trump was more popular than Hillary Clinton, instead trusting the rigged opinion polls which showed a huge dip in popularity for The Donald after the DNC. The article ends with quotes from Clinton's speech against the Alt Right, during which she mentioned Alex Jones by name. However, since Jones isn't Alt Right sensu stricto, you won't learn much about it by reading “The Elephant in the Room”. Often, I got the feeling that Ronson and Jones are two “dude bros”, nostalgically talking about their long lost youths when they chased mysterious owl gods. A weird contrast to all the apocalyptic fear-mongering surrounding the 2016 election campaign!

Not as good as Ronson's earlier books, but for old (owl) time's sake, I have given it the OK rating.

Conspiracy theory with Captain Freedom

“Governor” Jesse Ventura is a TV show host with a remarkably colorful background, including Vietnam veteran, wrestler, movie actor and…yes…governor (of Minnesota, to be exact). As a pro wrestler, he was known as “The Body”. In “Running Man”, he was known as Captain Freedom and pitted against Arnold Schwarzenegger's character. It's great fun to note that two of the actors in this dystopian classic went on to become state governors.

“Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” is a TV show featuring the former governor as host and lead investigator, peeking into various supposed conspiracies hatched by the U.S. government, the intelligence services or global cabals. Veteran conspiracy buff Alex Jones is featured in several episodes. Topics covered include 9/11, HAARP, 2012 Apocalypse, climate change denial and “The Culling”. Ventura confronts security guards, FBI agents and other supposed conspirators, while meeting with whistle blowers at deserted air strips or obscure taverns...

Most of the drama is obviously scripted, and it's not clear whether The Body really believes in the conspiracy theories he is promoting. The whole thing reeks entertainment, and probably should be taken with a grain of salt. As for the conspiracy theories themselves, a few are outlandish but most are vaguely plausible, which simply adds to the confusion surrounding the concept. After all, being plausible is not the same thing as being true!

In a sense, watching “Conspiracy Theory” could be seen as cultural studies. It may not uncover any dramatic new evidence for conspiracies, but at least it gives you a good overview of what kind of claims a large portion of the American public actually believes in. In that sense, I suppose you could say that Captain Freedom deserves three stars.

Conspiracism as entertainment

Jesse Ventura (real name James George Janos) is a former Navy Seal, pro wrestler, actor and state governor of Minnesota. His politics seem to be a vaguely leftist form of populism. “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” features this colorful personality as he attempts to track down real or supposed conspiracies in the American heartland. The show (which also features conspiracist doyen Alex Jones) should be taken with a certain grain of salt.

Often, perfectly serious issues are obfuscated by being linked to outlandish scenarios. In “The Worldwide Water Conspiracy”, legitimate criticism of corporate control of U.S. water supplies is turned into Bircher-style paranoid fear-mongering about “poison in bottled water” and a Communist (!) plot to undermine Our Great Nation. In “Gulf Oil Spill”, questions about who stood to gain from the 2010 disaster morphs into the usual bunk about evil Illuminati out to depopulate the world. More poison in bottled water, presumably. Otherwise, season two is mostly known for the episode “Police State”, about FEMA's (supposed) secret concentration camps. The episode was never rerun due to complaints from a politician featured on the show.

Ironically, one episode actually questions an established conspiracist narrative (aliens at Area 51) in favor of a more plausible scenario: the military uses belief in UFOs to cover up secret test flights of perfectly earthly fighter planes over urban areas. The so-called Phoenix Lights, Ventura suggests, could be explained in this manner. The episode also alleges that Area 51 workers have been victims of environmental hazards on the job, and that this too has been covered up. Of course, you will never hear *this* from Bob Lazar or any of the other ufology-conspiracy shills.

In a sense, this is the real conspiracy: that real life problems are forgotten or subsumed under a crazy narrative that makes them impossible to tackle. “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” is worth watching, but most of the episodes confuse more than they clarify. But yes, it works if you take it for what it is: scripted entertainment. Three stars.