Here are some things that Alex Jones, the bellicose conspiracy theorist behind Infowars and Prison Planet, actually believes:
- That a secret cabal of Bilderbergers, Rockefellers and the Illuminati control the world, and plan to kill off most of humanity.
- That “devil worshiping pedophiles basically run the New World Order. They love death and they love killing babies.”
- That Jared Loughner’s attempted assassination of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, which killed six people and left Giffords with brain damage, was “a staged mind-control operation” directed by the government’s “geometric psychological-warfare experts.”
- That the government may have deliberately created the tornado that devastated the town of Moore Oklahoma in 2013.
- That the Adult Swim cartoon Mr. Pickles, featuring a demon-possessed border collie, “promotes Satanism, abortion, and the Illuminati agenda.”
- That men are oppressed by bumbling sitcom dads like Archie Bunker and Al Bundy.
Yep, Alex Jones is a Men’s Rights Activist in all but name.
In the video above, ostensibly an analysis of the “the political and social agenda pushed during the Super Bowl,” Jones argues – and I use the term loosely – that the secret cabal running the world is using the media to tear down men and destroy the patriarchal family.
One of their primary weapons? “Bumbling dad” characters on TV sitcoms, which make men in general, and fathers in particular, look silly. (Huh. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this one before.) Demonstrating that he has his finger on the pulse of contemporary culture, he cites the examples of Archie Bunker and Al Bundy.
The rest of his rant is fairly typical Alex Jones material, an ominous if mostly incoherent assortment of dubious assertions and dire predictions about the future. Only this time he works in some oh-so-familiar MRA tropes. Strikingly, though his arguments in favor of the patriarchal family are thoroughly sexist, he displays none of the overt hostility towards women you see amongst Men’s Rightsers, whether on Reddit or on A Voice for Men.
He reminisces about visiting the homes of his alleged “black friends” as a kid, distressed to discover that the mothers were in charge. He suggests that Planned Parenthood’s is up to no good, but doesn’t explain why and tells his listeners to “look it up” themselves. (I looked it up: Apparently they’re a “Eugenics Death Cult.”)
At one point he claims that children are being taught “fisting” in grade school sex-ed classes. No, really.
But my favorite bit comes about 8 minutes in, when Jones, in the midst of explaining away the pay gap between men and women, declares that men are basically hard-wired to work harder than women:
It’s men that are meant to go out and not sleep for three days chasing down mastadons, to run them over the side of a cliff, to haul back enough … meat so that everybody survives for the winter.
That’s right: Alex Jones believes WE HUNTED THE MASTADON TO FEED YOU.
I only skimmed the comments over on Infowars, but I did enjoy this one:
I have to say that I am much less enthusiastic than Wirpaul about the prospect of bearing children, as I am under the impression it hurts a LOT.
Alert! Alert!
Code Mango!
He’s onto us!
Dammit, Wirpaul has rumbled us. I wondered why my Feminist check from the CIA was less this month than it was last month.
I just love it how wirpaul throws out the “CIA funded feminist movement” as if it requires no explanation.
Whelp… time to bust out the ol’ shredder.
I’m not sure if I’m horrified or amused? I mean, I’ve heard of him before but seeing his beliefs laid out like that is pretty magical, you know?
Fnoicby:
Does it really need one? Is there one that would make it less stupid than saying “CIA funded feminist movement”?
Reptilian funded feminist movement?
Couple possible sources for that, but it’s probably based on a nugget of bullshit that was lobbed at Kevin Jennings. Among the materials distributed by GLSEN over the years was a pamphlet demonstrating how to turn a latex glove into a dental dam; Some right-wing crank (Peter LaBarbera, I think) saw a glove and decided that this was a “fisting kit.”
Hey, did anyone else not get their check from the CIA? Feels like I’ve been waiting for that for yeeeeears.
Even if the mastadon thing were true they don’t realise that often in tribal cultures the men spend a short time hunting for meat then spend the rest of the time sitting on their asses or getting high. Whereas the women work all of the time – sourcing the vast majority of the food, processing and preparing it(often extremely laboriously), looking after the kids etc. Presumably stone age people lived in a similar manner;
“Eat yer hunk of mammoth woman but you better get a fire made and cook it for me cause I’m gonna be loaded offa shaman juice in 5 minutes.” – neolithic man living the mra dream.
The cheques might be late from time to time, but the black helicopter that brings me cupcakes on my birthday makes it all worthwhile.
MRAs want to be the ones who get pregnant and bear children? Be my guest, I say! Have at it. It’ll take some serious science, but I’m all for that. >.<
The man is ill.
Does anyone else think that Bill Hicks might have faked his own death and is now pretending to be Alex Jones as part of some weird comedy performance art projec?
Or is that just me?
I never had, but I’m kind of loving the idea.
It’s a testimony to the lack of critical thinking in US life that anybody listens to this very disturbed man for more than twenty seconds.
Another thing Alex Jones believes; George W Bush assassinated John F Kennedy Jr. using a Manchurian candidate who Co piloted the plane and crashed on purpose. Apparently, to be a top Illuminati member you have to assassinate someone.
I have some Prison Planet DVDs my mom’s coworker gave her. I might have to watch them tonight.
Lol seriously wtf?
It’s a testimony to the failure of critical thinking in the US that anyone listens to this terminally bewildered man for more than 20 seconds.
Is there any evidence at all that only men did the hunting back in the Stone Age? Idk, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that you would deliberately exclude half of the young, fit, able-bodied members of the tribe from hunting expeditions. Surely the more people out running and wielding spears the better.
Yey! I am so glad that we are actually discussing actually hunting mammoths on this site. 🙂
I’m having to do my Internet stuff on my phone for a few days ’cause away from home so can’t ponpontificate at length as I am usually want to do (suspect there’ll be a lot of relief at that). There are some really interesting points about gender relationships involved though so I’d have loved to natter about it.
If this thread is still going when I get back near a proper keyboard I’ll bore you to tears with dubious theories about hunter gathering and the shift from beneficent Matriarchy to oppressive patriarchy.
Also “Flint knapping and the foundations of Capitalism” 🙂
Argh, Cyberwolf is going to anticipate one of my points (and no doubt going to illustrate it better than I could)!
There wasn’t much big-game hunting in the past. Spear-hunting mammoths only happened if there was a weak animal readily available. The way early people actually procured meat: they set snares. Everyone did.
One starting point for all this is to note that, contrary to popular myth,mammoth hunting was neither particularly arduous or dangerous. It was so low cost that hunters could afford to slaughter numerous animals and only consume the very nice bits (basically imagine today only using the fillet from cows and throwing the rest away)
@ marinerachel
Yup, along with the occasional cliff drive.