Alex Jones to pay $49.3 million for Sandy Hook lies: A look at his strangest conspiracy theories

Alex Jones is having a terrible, horrible no-good, very bad month. The US conspiracy theorist was ordered by a jury to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre after claiming for years that the deadliest school shooting in US history was a hoax. The total — $49.3 million —is much less than the $150 million sought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut. But the trial marks the first time Jones has been held financially liable for peddling lies about the massacre, claiming it was faked by the government to tighten gun laws. The Sandy Hook conspiracy theory is by no means the only misinformation the right-wing talk show host and Infowars founder. Let’s take a look at some other conspiracy theories Jones has shared with his followers: The Pizzagate conspiracy Blogs, YouTube channels and internet radio shows in 2016 election claimed without evidence that the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington was at the centre of a child sex slave ring and that prominent Democrats including Bill and Hillary Clinton and her former campaign chairman John Podesta were involved. As per Vox, Jones in a 4 November, 2016, YouTube video, thundered: “Hillary Clinton has personally murdered and chopped up and raped [children].” Jones later apologised to the owner of the restaurant for his propagation of the conspiracy theory on the same day that a North Carolina man pleaded guilty to charges of arming himself with an assault rifle, traveling to the nation’s capital and firing his weapon inside the restaurant. [caption id=“attachment_4906641” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  File image of Alex Jones. Reuters[/caption] As per NPR, Jones, reading from a prepared statement, said that to his knowledge, “Neither Mr Alefantis, nor his restaurant Comet Ping Pong, were involved in any human trafficking as was part of the theories about Pizzagate that were being written about in many media outlets and which we commented upon.” He continued: “I want our viewers and listeners to know that we regret any negative impact our commentaries may have had on Mr Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, or its employees. We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope that anyone else involved in commenting on Pizzagate will do the same thing.” Turning people gay/ gay frogs Jones has repeatedly argued that the government is using chemicals to turn people and frogs gay. “The reason there’s so many gay people now is because it’s a chemical warfare operation, and I have the government documents where they said they’re going to encourage homosexuality with chemicals so that people don’t have children,” Jones said. Jones later stated that he didn’t like the government “putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay.”

I guess this means that Alex Jones' Gay Frogs activism is going to have to go on hiatus for a while. 🐸@placeboing pic.twitter.com/qUzGxbhIdV

— Randolf Richardson 張文道 🇨🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ ❤️ (@randolf828) July 27, 2022

“The majority of frogs in most areas of the United States are now gay,” Jones said in 2017. The quote has since become a meme and even a line of T-shirts. Mueller is a demon (and so are Obama and Hillary) As per CNBC, Jones had some unkind words for Trump’s nemeses Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Jones, speaking of Mueller in 2017, called the former marine and then special counsel “king of the swamp”. Jones added that Mueller was “the literal swamp king creature come to kill America.” “Everyone’s so scared of Mueller, they’d let Mueller rape kids in front of people, which he did,” Jones later said, as per CNBC. He later pulled back a little saying “the word is he doesn’t have sex with kids, he just controls it all. Can you imagine being a monster like that?” “That’s a demon I will take down, or I’ll die trying,” he added. “So that’s it. It’s going to happen, we’re going to walk out in the square, politically, at high noon, and he’s going to find out whether he makes a move man, make the move first, and then it’s going to happen. It’s not a joke. It’s not a game. It’s the real world. Politically. You’re going to get it, or I’m going to die trying, bitch.” Jones in 2016 also claimed that a ‘high-level’ source had confirmed to him that Obama and Hillary are demons – literally.

Trump ally Alex Jones says high-level sources confirmed to him that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are demons: https://t.co/Dph05bmi3F pic.twitter.com/979PAFTSnq

— Media Matters (@mmfa) October 10, 2016

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Weather weapons Jones has also, over the years, repeatedly claimed that the government controls the weather. In December 2021, as states in the South and Midwest struggled in the aftermath of a series of deadly storms, Jones wondered if President Biden was somehow to blame. Jones, speaking to listeners on “The Alex Jones Show”, claimed that the US government developed “weather weapons” in the 1950s. [caption id=“attachment_4971631” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  File image of Alex Jones. Tech2[/caption] He offered as ’evidence’ a speech from ex-CIA director John Brennan which spoke about the geopolitical risks of geoengineering the climate and the costs and benefits of using it as a potential tool against climate change. “So, they just think you’re stupid and they don’t want you knowing they are doing all of this,” Jones said on his show, claiming these systems would explain “why plants and animals were so much bigger and healthier. But we’ve adapted to live in less air.” As per Yahoo News, Jones suggested that Biden may have “ordered” that the power be turned off in Texas in February, when the state was hit by a historic winter storm that led to widespread power outages. He added: “So the question is did they use weather weapons to cause the tornadoes? That’s a legitimate question to ask.” As per the website Media Matters, Jones in 2013 claimed “there’s weather weapon stuff going on.” “We had floods in Texas like fifteen years ago, killed thirty-something people in one night. Turned out it was the Air Force,” Jones claimed. Sandy Hook Conspiracy theorists including Jones claimed parents of the 20 children who were killed at Sandy Hook were “crisis actors” pretending to grieve for non-existent children.

They claimed Sandy Hook was a ‘false flag’ operation carried out by the government as a means to promote gun control.

“Evidence mounts Florida attack is a giant false flag,” was the title of one video on Jones’ Infowars website. “Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake, with actors - in my view, manufactured,” Jones said at the time.

Menace #AlexJones now claims he that never said that #SandyHook was a hoax.
Let's roll the tape: "In MY view Sandy Hook is completely fake" pic.twitter.com/WdyBhVgyJx

— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) June 12, 2017

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Infowars alleged Sandy Hook survivors David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez were coached by CNN — the cable network regularly assailed by the American right for its supposed liberal bias — interpreting their ease in front of the camera as evidence they were in reality “crisis actors” working on behalf of the far left. But why are people so adamant at sticking to their conspiracy theories despite all evidence to the contrary? Social psychology professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University told NPR, “We look for evidence that fits what we already know or what we already believe, and we try to avoid information or evidence that we either disagree with or that we know doesn’t fit with our perspective,” he said. “And if someone comes along and says, here’s the evidence, your natural tendency’s actually to rehearse arguments against that evidence.” With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ****,  Trending News ****,  Cricket News ****,  Bollywood News ****,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook****,  Twitter and  Instagram