Alex Jones has tested negative for sympathy. The rise and fall of Alex Jones is comical. Many years ago his conspiracy theory talk show was considered entertainment material. I remember a friend saying, “We don’t have to leave for the movie for another half hour. You want to smoke a joint and listen to Alex Jones?” And he would go on about Satan being in league with the space aliens and they were both coming to take over soon, and it was amusing.
Then along comes Donald Trump and gives the man press credentials to the White House. Jones went from being a fourth rate carny act to a presence in politics. That led to him participating in the January 6 riot at the Capitol and that might lead him to a prison cell.
Alex Jones is very upset with Donald Trump right now for reversing the play on him and encouraging people to get vaccinated. His listeners don’t know what’s what (not that they ever did, or they wouldn’t have been listening to him.) Jones issued his “emergency Xmas message” to Trump and Trump has not responded. So it looks like it’s war. Here is the bereft Jones to tell you about it.
When he bragged about sexual assault.
I loved him for it.
Mocked the disabled.
Beautiful, man.
Golfed while the pandemic killed 100s of thousands.
A+ job.
Tried to overturn an election.
Patriot.
But saying the vaccines & booster are safe?!
HOW THE HELL HE DO ME LIKE THIS!!
HOW?!? pic.twitter.com/rCcnzi84BH— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) December 28, 2021
The fringe wingnuts are up in arms, i.e., Jones, Candace Owens, Mike Cernovich, a few others. It has yet to be ascertained what Steve Bannon is going to say about this or Dan Bongino. Bannon has Marjorie Taylor Greene on his show all the time doing anti-vaxx rants. Bongino inherited the mantle of Rush Limbaugh. He was threatening to quit his radio job over a vaccine mandate but is at this time fully vaccinated. Here’s the kicker on that.
Bongino’s representatives clarified on Twitter that he is himself vaccinated, having received the COVID-19 vaccine on doctor’s orders during his battle against Hodgkin’s lymphoma earlier this year. “He is not resisting the vaccine mandate for himself but for other employees who don’t have a platform to fight back as they risk unemployment if they don’t comply,” his representatives said.
Do you love it? He hates the vaccine, doesn’t believe in it, but his doctors made him get it because of his cancer. No one’s going to argue with that, right? He’s just carrying on the anti-vaxx wingnut philosophy out of concern for others. How selfless and noble.
Bongino’s listening audience is 8.5 million, which is 17 million ears that this drivel is being poured into on a daily basis. Rush Limbaugh and right-wing talk radio has been a cancer on the body politic since the 80’s.
We’ll see how the pack breaks and who goes where. Trump may or may not need the fringe. That, and how big the fringe actually is, is what we’re going to find out.
I guess that’s who encouraged the anti-vaxxers to invade NYC restaurants, unsuccessfully. (They’re really not bright people: they were claiming that because Burger King is open to the public it isn’t a private business.)
Not talk-radio, whinge-radio.