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Alex Jones has cornered the bipartisan paranoia market

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no_hypocrisy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 07:23 AM
Original message
Alex Jones has cornered the bipartisan paranoia market
A shadowy group of elites—mainly international bankers but also George W. Bush, Barack Obama, the Clintons, most of the mainstream media, the Saudi royal family, and Google—is trying to enslave the Earth’s population through orchestrated terror attacks and revolutions, vast economic manipulation, vaccines and fluoride, and an ever-widening system of surveillance that includes Facebook.

That’s the truth—at least, the truth according to Alex Jones, a popular talk-radio host who is today’s leading proponent and marketer of political paranoia. “The globalists have stolen the world’s power,” he told me recently, with surprisingly abundant good cheer. “Their big dream, and all they talk about, is creating a super bioweapon, basically based on a mouse pox, and just turn it loose and kill almost everybody. It kills about 99 percent of whatever mammal you design it for. It’s their Valhalla, and they’re going to do it.”

-snip-

Large swathes of America now know that the fix is in. The current president is a foreign-born Muslim; the last one conspired to bring down the World Trade Center, then covered up his nefarious crime with a tale about some hijacked airliners. Why wouldn’t people believe something horrible is afoot, what with economic chaos and multiple wars and devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. In this era of information anxiety, it turns out that telling people they are right to be afraid, anchoring their fears in specific details, is an excellent business model—and in America now, the paranoia business is booming.



This is the wave Alex Jones is riding. Fifteen years ago, he was an obscure FM talker in Austin who gained a bit of notoriety ranting about Timothy McVeigh and Waco. Now the longtime friend of Texas congressman Ron Paul is whispered about in the halls of Fox News, where he could envision himself “if I could have 100 percent control,” he says. His popularity isn’t a fluke; it’s a barometer of the rise of paranoia in every crevice of the Internet and cable TV, where fact and quasi-fact are now blurred on a regular basis and often make their way right onto mainstream screens. There has always been a shadow or two on the grassy knoll of American politics. But it’s never been more crowded up there. Jones’s visions of elitist machinations (and, of course, the elite are machinating), far from seeming ridiculous, have plenty of echoes on both the left and right. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the creator of the Academy Award–winning documentary Inside Job all traffic, to various extents, in riling up fears of secretive plots, some based in fact, some much less so. Fox News’s Glenn Beck can seem almost a carbon copy of Jones, and according to Jones, who does not believe in coincidences, this is not a coincidence. Jones says that Beck built his success on Jones’s act. “Glenn Beck climbed over my back,” says Jones. “He’s like a fiddler crab that grabbed the shell off my back and scurried over me.”

-more-

http://nymag.com/news/media/alex-jones-2011-4/
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ellenrr Donating Member (619 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 07:30 AM
Response to Original message
1. I think that Alex Jones is an agent of the right
and I'm disturbed that so many "progressive" people swallow what he says.

I'm on my way to read the article, but I would not put Matt Taibbi in that group, altho perhaps the author has some examples which will change my mind. I'm a big admirer of Taibbi, and so far I think his thinking is based on facts.

Some conspiracies are real and easily proven, for ex the conspiracy between bp and the government over the oil spill.
There are enough real and documented conspiracies without having to make up silly ones - like - my favorite - the one about the half-human, half reptile creatures living under the Denver Inter'l Airport
(Alex Jones)
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fegi052li Donating Member (52 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-22-11 08:40 PM
Response to Reply #1
7. That's why I think too
In any case, he's a fruitcake.
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fasttense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 07:40 AM
Response to Original message
2. Alex Jones hodge-podge collection of conspiracy theories
would not get traction if our government were not so corrupt.

I think Alex Jones loves every conspiracy theory he has ever met. He has so many to love and care for because our government is so corrupted by corporations and their never ending wealth.

When you have a fascist government, the people do not trust it, except for those people making money off of it.

Do you think the serfs trusted their kings and queens to do what was right for the serf? Do you think the average person in Italy trusted Mussolini to do what was right for the worker?

That is why conspiracy theories abound and why Alex Jones is welcomed.
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leveymg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 07:49 AM
Response to Original message
3. I don't know about the mouse pox conspiracy, but there is truth to the idea that Elites v The Rest
and globalization are the fundamental dynamics driving American politics and the economy today. The mass corporate media can obscure that with distractions and false categories and false framing, but who can deny the basic truth? Those with money and power want to keep it, and in times of decline, will grab what they can from those below them, and try to cover-up the fact. If they can't cover up, they'll brand their critics as "paranoid." The non-elite Right and the Left perceive the same problems, but are like blind men and the elephant.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 08:02 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Deleted message
Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
KoKo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 08:41 AM
Response to Original message
5. Article comparing Matt Taibbi, Julian Assange and creator of movie "Inside Job"
with Alex Jones as conspiracy theorists turned me off of going over to NY Mag to read the full article.

:-(
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-28-11 11:34 PM
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6. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Newspaper Boy Donating Member (7 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-24-11 09:57 AM
Response to Original message
8. Who did that song from the 80s?
Paranoia Self-Destroya? Could somebody help me with this?
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Rabblevox Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-31-11 02:08 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. Sure. That song is "Paranoia" by the Kinks. Link below...
One of the Kinks best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSbSueq_KSY&feature=related

Welcome to DU! :hi:
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Rabblevox Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-30-11 11:18 PM
Response to Original message
9. A.J. is a homophobic RW ass-hat. I'd HATE to have him as a neighbor. He's also been right...
Edited on Sun Oct-30-11 11:20 PM by Rabblevox
a disturbing amount of the time.

I really, really WISH I could dismiss him on the same level I do Beck, Limbaugh, and O'Rielly, but I can't.I listen (occasionally), I source-check always (J-School training dies hard) and I make up my own mind.

The fact that Rachel Maddow, Michael Moore, and Bernie Sanders have all gone back for repeat performances should be a clue that he should not be ignored by the left.

If he delivers 80% ignorant nonsense, and 20% truth, that is still a far better percentage than most MSM can claim. (and that remaing 20% is usually stuff you won't hear anywhere else). Listen to him, with a grain of salt. Check his facts. Make up your own damn mind.

(and I'm sure this thread will be locked. They truly hate AJ here)
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