Final task: Who is Alex Jones and where did he come from?

On my first post about Alex Jones I talked about my first introduction him and a bit about why people like him are a worrying phenomenon to me, but I don't think I really introduced him properly for people who don't already know him. That's something that I plan to (briefly) tell in my comic, so here is a rundown of Alex Jones and his history.

Alex Jones

Alex Jones is an American radio host and an extremely right-wing conspiracy theorist. Jones is easily one of the most well-known conspiracy theorists, having been active for about 16 years. Alex hosts a show called The Alex Jones Show, which is broadcast by Genesis Communications Network.

He also runs multiple websites, including InfoWars, where he streams his broadcasts, publishes fake news articles and sells his merchandise and health products.

Jones's rise to fame

Jones started his career in Austin, Texas, where he had a show on the public access network ACATV in the 90s. The local network was known for it's varied and absurd line of shows, due to it being available for everyone. Jones's out-there and arguably arrogant personality caused him all kinds trouble during his years in the network, clashing with co-workers and even ending up in a fight in the parking lot.

Nevertheless, due to his consistently conspicuous rants, and some endorsement by local celebrities, he managed to gain an audience before moving to radio in 1996. His network KJFK however fired him in 1999 due to his views making it difficult for the station to sell advertisements.

In the 2000s he began broadcasting his show from his home through internet. And it was this early shift to the internet that made Jones' rise to fame possible: he created the websites InfoWars and PrisonPlanet to spread his propaganda and sell physical copies of his rants and documentaries. Later he started streaming his broadcasts on his website and created a YouTube channel.

By 2010 he had gathered an enormous following, with 4 million unique visitors in his website and 2 million monthly listeners of his show.

The core of Jones's beliefs

What I gather from the articles I've read, the foundation of Jones's beliefs is the idea of something he calls the "New World Order". Here's how Rolling Stone describes this idea:

To Jones, the New World Order is a blanketing presence, a wicked beast for which he has endless pet names: the “demonic high-tech tyranny” or the “absurdist 1984 regime of control-freak sadists.”

The New World Order’s methods are many: manufactured economic crises, sophisticated surveillance tech and — above all — inside-job terror attacks that fuel exploitable hysteria. The endgame, Jones believes, is a mass eugenics operation that will depopulate the planet by poisoning our food and water with fluoride, radioactive isotopes and various futuristic toxic soups being engineered in New World Order laboratories.

This is an idea that Jones seems to have gotten in his teenage years, having real the book None Dare Call It Conspiracy by conspiracy theorist Gary Allen. He has referred to this book as "the easiest-to-read primer on The New World Order". Thanks for the recommendation, Alex. I'll look forward to avoiding it!

So in short, in the root of Jones's rants seems to be the idea that the government is deliberately trying to reduce the population to the people they see fit.

Jones sees the plots of the New World Order in many events, including 9-11, the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 and the Sandy Hook School Shooting in 2012, which he claims are all inside-jobs. He has also claimed on several occasions that the government is putting chemicals into tap water to make people stupid and infertile. In fact, one of his most famous quotes has to do with how the government is using "estrogen mimickers" to "feminize" people so that they wouldn't reproduce, leading to him saying the famous words:

"I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that TURN THE FREAKIN' FROGS GAY!"

Which to me, as a person making a satirical comic, is comedy gold. I'm looking forward to drawing that gay frog.

So now you know Jones

You're welcome. This is what I will condense this into the first section of comic. In the following posts, I will explain further why I despise him and why I feel that reading into is important in the first place. Until then, have a sketch.

Sources:

Wikipedia: "Alex Jones"

Forbes: "Alex Jones' Top 10 Health Claims And Why They Are Wrong"

Observer: "The Alex Jones Origin Story: On Austin Public Access TV, His Act Was Never an Act"

The Austin Chronicle: "Psst, It's a Conspiracy: KJFK Gives Alex Jones the Boot"

Rolling Stone: "Meet Alex Jones"

Vox: "Alex Jones, Pizzagate booster and America’s most famous conspiracy theorist, explained"