Alex Jones and his ilk had an incredible amount of influence on the Las Vegas Shooters
Alex Jones, the anti-government, fear inducing conspiracy theorist is once again claiming that a violent gun tragedy is somehow a false flag. This time however he may be trying to save his own skin. The shooting in question took place this past Sunday in Las Vegas.
Jerad and Amanda Miller ambushed and shot two police officers, Alyn Beck & Igor Soldo at point blank range in a restaurant, then killed a third person, Robert Wilcox, before taking their own lives in a “suicide pact.”
According to Media Matters, on the June 9 edition of The Alex Jones Show, Jones claimed “the country is being purposefully imploded right now.” Jones continued, “There is so much proof of this being staged yesterday, when I first read about it, and this morning, that my mind exploded with hundreds of data points, and quite frankly it’s conclusive.”
Jones then claimed that the shooting resembled some of the “hundreds of predictions” that he had made “since the Bundy ranch situation,” including a scenario where a shooting is blamed on the Tea Party.
Jones then alleged that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was somehow responsible concluding; “I kept telling, they’re getting ready to false flag, and it happens right in Harry Reid’s district, right in his state, right in his city, with his police department”
As we’re learning, the Millers were indeed hardcore right-wing Tea Party supporters who spent time at the Bundy Ranch. Apparently, after they murdered the two policemen, they dragged them to the floor and draped officer Beck with a Gadsden flag (don’t tread on me). Judging by Jerad Miller’s Facebook page, they likely got all their information from Jones, pro-gun groups like the NRA, Koch Brother organizations and Fox News Contributors.
Jerad Miller has in fact been sharing Alex Jones’ Infowars memes for a long time now. Early last year he stated on his page “infowars.com get informed or get stupid.” I guess he didn’t realize that one led to the other.
As I mentioned in my article about the “American Culture of Fear and Gun Control”, it’s not that surprising to see a couple people so heavily influenced by right-wing media fear mongering act out on their fears.
Are people like Alex Jones responsible for shootings like this? The answer is up for debate I guess, but there is no denying the amount of influence Jones and his ilk had on the murderous couple. Especially their extreme anti-government views. The Millers weren’t the first right-wingers to scream revolution and kill innocent people. Given the current political climate, I don’t think they’ll be the last.
I don’t expect Alex Jones to apologize, take responsibility, or change his tone. Same goes for Matt Drudge and Fox News for that matter. They either don’t realize the negative affect they’re having on society or they’re getting too rich to care.
Blaming Alex Jones for the actions of these 2 tweekers is like blaming Greenpeace for the actions of the unabomber.
Paul Joe G
P.S. Alex Jones has to be the biggest douchebag since Morton Downey Jr.
If you check some of Alex Jones reporting, which I assume you have, you might find that their are a lot of exaggerations as you know and other political views that are extreme; however he also reports on a lot of excesses by the police and there are also some legitimate complains. As Radley Balko, author of the Rise of the Warrior Cop points out they have invaded a lot of homes in no-knock raids for non-violent crimes and many of them were wrong houses or killed innocent people.
If you combine that with exaggerations from Alex Jones then you might have a significant contributing cause although violent upbringing is almost always a bigger contributing cause.
My family has two dairy farms in a rural community right at the point where South Carolina’s coastal plain begins to give way to the lowcountry. A bit of that acreage belongs to me and, for any number of years, I have planted an acre of corn on rotating portions of it.
There are any number of variables that will partly determine my annual yield and I have little or no control over them; i.e., the optimal amount of sun, the optimal amount of rain, sun/rain coming at optimal intervals, the relative heat of summer days, the relative coolness of summer nights, etc., etc. I am not responsible for either a good yield or a poor yield to the degree that these variables are determining factors for either.
However, there is one part of the process apart from which there would be no yield whatsoever and over which I have complete control—the proper preparation/seeding/cultivation of the field itself.
My responsibility for what kind of corn crop I harvest in August is limited to how well I prepare, seed and cultivate the field. But it is a fundamental responsibility. And, if I have properly taken care of that responsibility, it increases the odds of a particular outcome should the variables of the South Carolina summer prove optimal.
Multitudinous variables worked together for multitudinous years to result in the violent “yield” of Jerad and Amanda Miller’s lives. Alex Jones had no control over and bears no responsibility for those variables.
However, it is, I believe, fair to ask about the extent to which he prepared and seeded and cultivated a field which, with the perfect combination of variables, was capable of producing such a violent harvest.
It is a question that defies quantification and thus any clarity as to any degree of responsibility he might bear. But it is a question we ask every day in any number of ways in our society/culture. What kinds of fields are we preparing and seeding and cultivating and what could they potentially yield when we harvest the result of our efforts? And to what degree do any of us bear responsibility for that yield?
You seem to be confusing Jones with a commercial. Mcdonalds can make you obese, beer can lead to alcoholism. Jones is not a commercial, he is the product. The product of conspiracy theories and fear of government. Consuming his product could have led to their actions.
Its completely different. Memes and video games are forms of entertainment. Jones calls himself a trustworthy member of the media. When a member of the media makes people paranoid of the people around him, he doesn’t have to say the exact words. Creating distrust and fear of government isn’t the same as making people aware of the damage of fossil fuels
Getting people to distrust their government is not the same as being concerned with fossil fuels, its not even the same sport. When you get people to distrust an institution like the government, You get people who aren’t right in the head to act out on their fears. If you’re concerned about the environment, why the hell would you create an oil spill?
Yeah looks like you missed the point Rusty was making. No surprise there
Judging by their appearance, I would say it’s their meth dealer’s fault.
No, Alex Jones is not responsible for the Las Vegas shootings. It is obviously Obama’s fault!