Alex Jones is an American political commentator, new media personality, and conspiracy theorist.
Conspiracy theory- which we will here define as attributing the occurrence of events or phenomena to sinister or secret organisations- infects all parts of the political spectrum and exists across the World. However, to a certain portion of the American right, conspiracy theory does not merely influence their thinking; it is their thinking. Any government programme or action is interpreted as an insidious attempt by a secret cabal of bureaucrats to enhance their own power.
Jones’ pronouncements- most notoriously his claims that the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting were paid actors- are so strange and extreme that they serve as a way of allowing people to push conspiracy theory to the far-right, and of allowing people to claim that their own views are based in truth and objectivity. Any suggestion of government conspiracy at all is now pilloried as crazy and fringe.
But where does this leave us when the Government, and the establishment media, does act dishonestly, as they do from time to time? Clearly, we cannot live in a society where the public almost by default does not trust anything the government tells it. But nor can we live in a society where the public blithely accepts everything authority figures do or say, either. We all have a responsibility to examine information critically, and this is important whether it comes from Alex Jones or Emily Maitlis, Tucker Carlson or Chris Cuomo.
My guest today is Elizabeth Williamson. Elizabeth is a features writer for the New York Times who has covered Jones extensively, especially in relation to his legal troubles surrounding the Sandy Hook School shooting. As well as taking about Jones, we discuss the importance of conspiracy theory to the American far right, the rise of fringe movements in the country since the 1990s, and how the mainstream media can begin to regain the trust it has lost.