The Info Warrior Returns
Elon Musk has reinstated the X/Twitter account of political commentator Alex Jones, despite his statement that he would not when asked last year about it, where he said, “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”[i] The issue with this argument is that Jones was not banned from Twitter and other media platforms that previously hosted his channel Infowar because of his comments about Sandy Hook being a hoax, a set up to attack the Second Amendment. Jones was banned for abusive behavior. He spent 10 minutes berating and insulting CNN reporter Oliver Darcy between Congressional hearings, at one point calling him a “maggot”.[ii]
Twitter was the last media platform to ban Jones and Infowars. Then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey invoked the outrage of the illiberal liberal class. Eleanor Ainge Roy writes in The Guardian that Dorsey had defended his ‘failure’ to ban Jones, and that “Twitter remains the lone major social network to still allow Jones unfettered access and the broadcaster has a “verified” account. An increasing number of Twitter users have started campaigning for the site to bar Jones and accusing Dorsey of seeking to shift responsibility to journalists.”[iii] Dorsey said at the time that journalists should counter Jones’ lies and conspiracies with facts, and that censoring Jones was not the answer. It does not occur to Roy or other ‘journalists’ seeking the erasing of Jones from all media platforms that it is not only their responsibility to seek truth and to hold the powerful accountable, but they are also responsible for upholding freedom of speech and expression. That includes the speech of people they despise.
Dorsey did end up banning Jones and Infowars, to the cheers of the illiberal liberal class. What followed was pompous debates over whether the deplatforming of Jones was actual censorship, since media platforms are not government actors, even though media giants collude with the government daily, and platforms like Facebook and Youtube hire people from the US security state.[iv] Jones may not have been ‘legally censored’, but social media is the modern town square. Social media should be seen as a public utility, as to function in our society, you need a social media presence.
Instead of seeing the decision by Musk as the ‘platforming’ of Jones, it should be seen as the reversal of his unpersoning. Sadly, many do not see it this way, and Piers Morgan, host of the show Uncensored, writes in an op-ed published in the New York Post that “Frankly, it’s hard to imagine a more egregious example of what should not qualify as free speech than Jones waging a relentless campaign of deliberate lies about the Sandy Hook school massacre, branding it a hoax perpetrated by the Obama administration to enforce new gun control laws and exposing the victims’ grieving families to horrendous threats and harassment by saying they were actors hired to take part in the conspiracy.”[v] Firstly, as I noted earlier, this is not why Jones was banned from social media. Secondly, and more importantly, Jones is not responsible for the actions of those who harassed the families of the children murdered in the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones may have been calling the parents of the murdered children ‘crisis actors’, but he had the right to spew his nonsense conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook. What he did was not defamation, just like calling elites Reptilians or pedophiles is not defamation. Morgan is wrong, as are others including Musk a year ago, as what Jones expressed absolutely qualifies as free speech.
Morgan concludes his article by writing that “All you’ve done by showing this monster mercy is reward him for his repellent treatment of already devastated families experiencing the same awful grief you felt when your son died. You were right about him the first time.”[vi] Morgan is relying on emotions, not logic or principle. Musk’s initial case for why he would not reinstate Jones did as well. What Jones said about the Sandy Hook massacre may be abhorrent, but even the most abhorrent ideas are protected speech. As John Stuart Mill notes in On Liberty, “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”[vii] A person like Jones is a great litmus test for those who profess their supposed ardent belief in freedom of speech. If the damage caused by ideas is a reason for censoring someone, then the likes of George Bush, the Taliban, and Saudi regime would be swiftly banned from social media, as they are far more destructive and harmful than Jones has ever been.
I introduced this story by referring to Jones as a political commentator, not a conspiracy theorist, as mostly all the headlines announcing his return to Twitter are doing. The Rolling Stone’s headline laments the return of ‘conspiracy kingpin’ Jones.[viii] I see Jones as a political commentator, not a conspiracy theorist, or, as LZ Granderson argues in the LA Times, not a theorist but a conman, because while he expresses insipid rubbish which is often disgusting but sometimes entertaining, like his infamous rant about ‘gay frogs’, he has made a lot of interesting and accurate predictions about US and international politics.[ix] Jones predicted the attack on the Twin Towers in the summer of 2001, he predicted the invasion of Iraq in 2002, and in his books on the ‘Great Reset’ and the notion that there is a global conspiracy to enslave humanity he foresees the exploitation of digital currency and digital IDs by a globalist cabal to control populations.[x]
In his book The Great Reset Jones analyzes the writings of WEF founder Klaus Schwab, like his book on the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, which is the rapid digitization of the economy, in the form of technologies like automation of the manufacturing sector. Jones’s work is not like David Icke’s or Nick Redfern’s. While they rely more on writings of ‘scholars’ within their own circle, Jones analyzes the literature of prominent globalists. This is not to say that Jones is overall a heroic thinker, but underneath his shouting and lunacy, he has some interesting arguments about globalism and the goals of people like Bill Gates to move beyond a world of states and to transition into a world ruled by one government. At one point in The Great Reset, Jones makes an important point when he writes that “An inevitable consequence of the globalists believing they know how things should be done better than you do comes across loud and clear when they try to establish cooperation. Because they’re not genuinely talking about cooperation. They’re talking about submission to their will.”[xi] Many of Jones’s rants over the years about globalist domination may have seemed conspiratorial, however, the WEF openly talks about how democracy is not ideal, as it can result in decisions like Trump and Brexit, and with the attempt to usher in a system of control underpinned by a complete shift to digital currency, Jones seems less insane and more prophetic.[xii]
Jones’s unpersoning enabled him and his supporters to market him as a martyr for truth, ‘the most persecuted man in the world’. It also gave the theories he posits about elite control and censorship credence. No matter what you think of Jones, he should be on social media. Instead of scoffing, people should try and engage with his ideas, whether it’s reading his books or watching Alex Lee Moyer’s film ‘Alex’s War’. No matter how crazy someone is or is professed to be, if they have taken the time to write books and do radio shows for years, they should be heard out and given a fair hearing.
Jones is a fascinating thinker, despite his plunge into absurd and often gross conspiracy theories, like the Sandy Hook conspiracy. His return to Twitter is more than a reinstatement of a banned social media account, it is the repersoning of a figure that was unpersoned.
Out for Vivek
In the Republican primary debate on December 6th, Vivek Ramaswamy went on an all-out assault against his three opponents, focusing the brunt of his attacks on Nikki Haley. After saying that Chris Christie’s “version of foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York.”, Ramaswamy held up a piece of paper that read “Nikki Haley = Corrupt.” and he said, “So reject this myth that they’ve been selling you, that somebody had a cup-of-coffee stint at the U.N., and then makes eight million bucks after, has real foreign policy experience,”[xiii] Across the illiberal liberal class, there was disgust. The conservative and liberal elite are united in their disdain for Ramaswamy. Edward Luce of The Financial Times argues that Ramaswamy “is to grotesquerie what a rhino is to a mouse.” And that “In British terms you could cross Suella Braverman with Jacob Rees-Mogg then square the composite and still come nowhere near to capturing the metaphysical horror of Ramaswamy.”[xiv] Such a visceral reaction was shared by CNN analyst Van Jones, who claimed that he was “shaking” upon listening to Ramaswamy in the primary debate.[xv]
From the conservative elite, Haisten Willis of The Washington Examiner writes that in the debate, Ramaswamy entered “full blown conspiracy mode”, and Jim Geraghty of The National Review said of Ramaswamy that “He brought to the stage all the decorum and dignity of a feces-flinging howler monkey.”[xvi] To all these elites, the ideas that Ramaswamy expressed, like J6 being an inside job or Haley being a tool of the war industry are anathema. The conservative elite are as eager to move on from Trump as their liberal counterparts are. To them, Ramaswamy is a reiteration of Trump.
Ramaswamy is an outsider candidate like Trump, in that he does not attempt to make friends or reach out to GOP donors. Just like Trump attacked politicians like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in 2015-16, Ramaswamy is attacking the likes of Haley and Christie, especially Haley, for being corrupt and servile to donors and foreign powers, not to the American people.
Whether Ramaswamy is authentic or not in his anti-establishment tirades is irrelevant to his appeal. He may not have Trump’s charisma or ability to resonate with working class voters, but he is effective at channeling the rage and distrust that voters have for the US political class. Where people see him using figures like Jones as his muse, Ramaswamy is instead becoming the sort of candidate that Trump became to win the Republican nomination in 2016. There is a sense of déjà vu around how Ramaswamy is preforming the primary debates and how he is being dismissed as unserious. Ultimately, none of the four remaining candidates have any chance of defeating Trump for the nomination, unless he is assassinated or dies of a heart attack. The notion that because Ramaswamy is criticizing the foreign policy record of Haley and is calling his opponents ‘puppets’, he is unserious, is faulty at best, and demonstrates the emptiness of the mainstream political pundits. For them, Trump was an aberration in the primary process, and his storming of the field in 2015/16 is a usurpation of power that cannot be replicated by anyone else. For example, Republican strategist Scott Jennings says that Ramaswamy is trying to emulate Trump, but “Trump’s brand and image were so strong on the front end, that it gave him the latitude and credibility to engage with his opponents in some of the ways Vivek is — it’s just he doesn’t bring that to the race,”[xvii] While it’s true that prior to running for the nomination, Trump had already consolidated his name over decades through his real estate empire and work in television, Ramaswamy has a background in business as well, though the biotechnology firm that he founded in 2014, Roivant Sciences, has never turned a profit and the firm that he co-founded based in Ohio, Strive Asset Management, is focused mainly on being ‘anti-woke’, as outlined in his book Woke Inc.: Inside America’s Social Justice Scam.
Unlike Ron DeSantis and Haley, however, Ramaswamy is not making the ‘war on the woke’ the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. He is instead mimicking Trump’s model of ripping the entire political establishment, not just the Democratic elite but the Republican elite as well. Where others see him engaging in conspiracies and, according to Tori Otten of The New Republic, “going full Q”, many voters see their hatred for the US political establishment being reflected, whereas in Haley and Christie there is little difference between their positions and Biden’s. Funding for Ukraine captures this perfectly.[xviii] Polls show that the American people are increasingly hesitant to continue sending billions to Ukraine. According to Gallup polling done in early November, 41% of Americans say that the US is doing too much to help Ukraine.[xix] This is an increase from 24% in 2022 and 29% earlier in 2023.[xx] When broken down by party affiliation, 62% of Republicans, 44% of Independents, and 14% of Democrats.[xxi] Evidently, Republican voters do not think their tax dollars should be going into Zelensky’s pockets. It is thus understandable that the likes of Haley and Christie, even DeSantis, are not well received by voters.
Ramaswamy may be polling poorly, but if Trump were not included in these polls, it is likely that Ramaswamy would be preforming much better than the chattering of the illiberal liberal class suggests. They may be all in for Haley or DeSantis, but they are not the ultimate deciders, the voters are. The conservative elite still do not appreciate the extent to which the political establishment is despised, and rightly so. To them, there is no political establishment, there is a true fight between the good conservatives and the demonic Democrats. They are willing dupes just like their opposition. The fight within the US political binary is manufactured by the permanent regime to retain their ultimate authority. A backlash to this authority manifested in the Republican party with the rise of Trump, and yet, the conservative elite was not shaken from their stupor. That explains their take on Ramaswamy, as he exploits the same disenchantment that Trump did. He may not be as effective at it, but what it shows is that disenchantment still exists.
Nowhere did I see the cluelessness of the conservative elite in response to Ramaswamy captured better than in an op-ed in Politico by Rich Lowry, where he writes that “Ramaswamy has sounded as pro-Trump as Trump’s own children, inveighed against an establishment that barely exists, played footsie with conspiracy theories, and courted controversies — both righteous and stupid — to gain the attention of the base of the party.”[xxii] The ‘establishment that barely exists’ is the very establishment that Lowry is a member of. It is no wonder that his ilk is disgusted by Ramaswamy and are out to discredit him as unserious. They expressed similar disgust when Trump was one by one, smashing each one of their favored candidates in 2015/16. Their disdain for Ramaswamy is in essence disdain for Republican voters who are tired of fueling endless war abroad, were lied to about J6, and the exploitation of 9/11 to turn the US into a militaristic police state not far off the United Citizens Federation in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. Republican voters know that a choice between Haley and Biden is not a choice. That’s the point, there shouldn’t be a choice on issues like funding Ukraine or Israel. This proves that the conservative elite are as authoritarian as their liberal counterparts, and that they too, are part of the illiberal liberal globalist class.
[i] Morgan, Piers. “Elon Musk Couldn’t Be More Wrong about Alex Jones: He’s a Hate-Speech Monster.” The New York Post, December 11, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/12/11/opinion/elon-musk-couldnt-be-more-wrong-about-alex-jones-hes-a-hate-speech-monster/.
[ii] McCausland, Phil, and Ben Collins. “Twitter Permanently Bans Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones and Website Infowars.” NBC News, September 6, 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-permanently-bans-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-website-infowars-n907261.
[iii] Roy, Eleanor Ainge. “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Defends Failure to Ban Alex Jones.” The Guardian, August 8, 2018, sec. Technology. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/08/jack-dorsey-defends-failure-to-ban-alex-jones-from-twitter.
[iv] Macleod, Alan. “The Federal Bureau of Tweets: Twitter Is Hiring an Alarming Number of FBI Agents.” MintPress News, June 21, 2022. https://www.mintpressnews.com/twitter-hiring-alarming-number-spooks-secret-agents/.
[v] Morgan. “Elon Musk Couldn’t Be More Wrong about Alex Jones: He’s a Hate-Speech Monster.”
[vi] Morgan. “Elon Musk Couldn’t Be More Wrong about Alex Jones: He’s a Hate-Speech Monster.”
[vii] Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty, Utilitarianism, and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
[viii] Klee, Miles. “Elon Musk Reinstates Twitter Account of Conspiracy Kingpin Alex Jones.” Rolling Stone, December 10, 2023. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-reinstates-alex-jones-twitter-account-1234920060/.
[ix] Granderson, LZ. “Granderson: Alex Jones Is No Kind of ‘Theorist.’” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-08-06/alex-jones-trial-conspiracy-theories.
[x] Jones, Alex. The Great Reset. Simon and Schuster, 2022., and Stahl, Jeremy. “Where Did 9/11 Conspiracies Come From?” Slate, September 6, 2011. https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/trutherism/2011/09/where_did_911_conspiracies_come_from.html.
[xi] Jones. The Great Reset.
[xii] O’Neill, Brendan. “The WEF Is a Menace to Democracy.” http://www.spiked-online.com, January 24, 2023. https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/24/the-wef-is-a-menace-to-democracy/.
[xiii] Kim, Soo Rin, and Kendall Ross. “Why Ramaswamy Got Most ‘Boos’ at Republican Debate as He Went after Haley, Christie.” ABC News, December 7, 2023. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vivek-ramaswamy-boos-republican-debate-after-haley-christie/story?id=105453882.
[xiv] Luce, Edward. “‘The Most Obnoxious Blowhard in America.’” http://www.ft.com, December 8, 2023. https://www.ft.com/content/5955ba24-9669-492c-8a37-d4e74474bb75.
[xv] Fortinsky, Sarah. “Van Jones ‘Shaking’ over Ramaswamy Remarks: ‘That Guy Is Dangerous.’” The Hill, December 7, 2023. https://thehill.com/elections/4348357-van-jones-ramaswamy-remarks-that-guy-is-dangerous/.
[xvi] Willis, Haisten. “Ramaswamy Enters Full Conspiracy Mode in Fourth GOP Debate.” Washington Examiner, December 7, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/ramaswamy-conspiracy-fourth-gop-debate., and Geraghty, Jim. “Well, That Debate Was Unhinged.” National Review, December 7, 2023. https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/well-that-debate-was-unhinged/.
[xvii] Vakil, Caroline. “Ramaswamy Faces Backlash over Debate Performance.” The Hill, December 7, 2023. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4348840-vivek-ramaswamy-debate-nikki-haley-chris-christie-donald-trump-january-6/.
[xviii] Otten, Tori. “Vivek Ramaswamy Went Full Q at Wednesday’s Debate.” The New Republic, November 1, 2022. https://newrepublic.com/post/177373/watch-vivek-ramaswamy-embrace-every-disgusting-right-wing-conspiracy-theory-can-think.
[xix] Inc., Gallup. “American Views on the Ukraine War in 6 Charts.” Gallup.com, November 2, 2023. https://news.gallup.com/poll/513680/american-views-ukraine-war-charts.aspx.
[xx] Inc. “American Views on the Ukraine War in 6 Charts.”
[xxi] Inc. “American Views on the Ukraine War in 6 Charts.”
[xxii] Lowry, Rich. “Opinion | What I Got Wrong about Vivek Ramaswamy.” POLITICO, November 16, 2023. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/16/vivek-ramaswamy-campaign-failure-00127426.
References
Brangham, William, and P.J. Tobia. “Why Kicking Alex Jones off Social Media Is Not Legally Censorship.” PBS NewsHour, August 8, 2018. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-kicking-alex-jones-off-social-media-is-not-legally-censorship.
Fortinsky, Sarah. “Van Jones ‘Shaking’ over Ramaswamy Remarks: ‘That Guy Is Dangerous.’” The Hill, December 7, 2023. https://thehill.com/elections/4348357-van-jones-ramaswamy-remarks-that-guy-is-dangerous/.
Geraghty, Jim. “Well, That Debate Was Unhinged.” National Review, December 7, 2023. https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/well-that-debate-was-unhinged/.
Granderson, LZ. “Granderson: Alex Jones Is No Kind of ‘Theorist.’” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-08-06/alex-jones-trial-conspiracy-theories.
Inc., Gallup. “American Views on the Ukraine War in 6 Charts.” Gallup.com, November 2, 2023. https://news.gallup.com/poll/513680/american-views-ukraine-war-charts.aspx.
Jones, Alex. The Great Reset. Simon and Schuster, 2022.
Kim, Soo Rin, and Kendall Ross. “Why Ramaswamy Got Most ‘Boos’ at Republican Debate as He Went after Haley, Christie.” ABC News, December 7, 2023. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vivek-ramaswamy-boos-republican-debate-after-haley-christie/story?id=105453882.
Klee, Miles. “Elon Musk Reinstates Twitter Account of Conspiracy Kingpin Alex Jones.” Rolling Stone, December 10, 2023. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-reinstates-alex-jones-twitter-account-1234920060/.
Lowry, Rich. “Opinion | What I Got Wrong about Vivek Ramaswamy.” POLITICO, November 16, 2023. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/16/vivek-ramaswamy-campaign-failure-00127426.
Luce, Edward. “‘The Most Obnoxious Blowhard in America.’” http://www.ft.com, December 8, 2023. https://www.ft.com/content/5955ba24-9669-492c-8a37-d4e74474bb75.
Macleod, Alan. “The Federal Bureau of Tweets: Twitter Is Hiring an Alarming Number of FBI Agents.” MintPress News, June 21, 2022. https://www.mintpressnews.com/twitter-hiring-alarming-number-spooks-secret-agents/.
McCausland, Phil, and Ben Collins. “Twitter Permanently Bans Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones and Website Infowars.” NBC News, September 6, 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-permanently-bans-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-website-infowars-n907261.
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty, Utilitarianism, and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Morgan, Piers. “Elon Musk Couldn’t Be More Wrong about Alex Jones: He’s a Hate-Speech Monster.” The New York Post, December 11, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/12/11/opinion/elon-musk-couldnt-be-more-wrong-about-alex-jones-hes-a-hate-speech-monster/.
O’Neill, Brendan. “The WEF Is a Menace to Democracy.” http://www.spiked-online.com, January 24, 2023. https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/24/the-wef-is-a-menace-to-democracy/.
Otten, Tori. “Vivek Ramaswamy Went Full Q at Wednesday’s Debate.” The New Republic, November 1, 2022. https://newrepublic.com/post/177373/watch-vivek-ramaswamy-embrace-every-disgusting-right-wing-conspiracy-theory-can-think.
Roy, Eleanor Ainge. “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Defends Failure to Ban Alex Jones.” The Guardian, August 8, 2018, sec. Technology. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/08/jack-dorsey-defends-failure-to-ban-alex-jones-from-twitter.
Stahl, Jeremy. “Where Did 9/11 Conspiracies Come From?” Slate, September 6, 2011. https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/trutherism/2011/09/where_did_911_conspiracies_come_from.html.
Vakil, Caroline. “Ramaswamy Faces Backlash over Debate Performance.” The Hill, December 7, 2023. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4348840-vivek-ramaswamy-debate-nikki-haley-chris-christie-donald-trump-january-6/.
Willis, Haisten. “Ramaswamy Enters Full Conspiracy Mode in Fourth GOP Debate.” Washington Examiner, December 7, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/ramaswamy-conspiracy-fourth-gop-debate.
Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes 
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