Growing up, I knew of Alex Jones as the voice of a growing radical right-wing movement obsessed with conspiracy theories and flippant about spreading misinformation — in short, seemingly the seeds of what the Trump-led Republican Party has grown into.
Among Jones’ offensive conspiracy theories, mostly spread on his Infowars site, was that the horrific 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which resulted in the killing of 20 children and six adults, was a hoax staged by the government. Families of Sandy Hook victims filed defamation lawsuits against Jones and won, which means he now owes them up to $1 billion. So far, the families have not received any of that money.
Infowars was also notorious for publishing extremely racist and queerphobic content, from claiming Michelle Obama was a man to allegations that the government was putting chemicals in water that was turning frogs gay.
In 2024, the satirical publication The Onion — which in the past has published headlines such as, “Inconsiderate Wife Leaves Bathroom A Total Mess After Home Birth” — won a bidding war backed by Sandy Hook families to buy Infowars’ parent company with the goal of publishing content that would turn Infowars into a parody site. But a bankruptcy court later blocked that sale.
