Following his trial for defamation of the families of the children and school staff killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is using Valve Corp.’s Steam, the world’s largest digital distribution platform for PC games, to sell an Infowars-themed video game. Jones claims to have earned hundreds of thousands in revenue from the video game, yet he has refused to pay the Sandy Hook families. Alex Jones: NWO Wars also mirrors and cartoonishly repackages the conspiracy theorist’s regularly violent, hateful rhetoric despite the platform’s policies against hate speech.
I mean, why aren’t his assets seized and bank accounts frozen at this point?
Or is it only the poor that have to pay their fines?
The court is trying. He’s just playing a lot of games. Lots of the money is held by his parents or hidden in different shell companies. The court established that he and InfoWars are basically the same thing as far as the money is concerned, so he’s been trying to start new shows and businesses to further complicate things.
Court orders don’t automatically happen or always get enforced. Going through a divorce right now - lawyer told me that even if I do get an order that some of the shared debts are paid, he can just not. I’d have to go back to court and still get dinged on my credit.
If you’re poor though they just put you in jail while they figure that stuff out. If they figure it out.
These are civil cases.
That’s honestly just worse if true. How is this not criminal? He doesn’t go to jail unless the state is what he’s ripped off? You know, the one by the people for the people?
The 1st Amendment presents a very high bar for criminal prosecution of speech.
A bar over which he took off into fucking orbit! It’s 100% because of rich, famous, right wing white guy privilege that he isn’t in prison right now.
On the contrary, the more unpopular the speech, the higher the bar.
They will not. This is a civil case its not like he owes the IRS. Man you said that so confidently and its got like 20 upvotes while being so clearly and easily serachable to be proved completely false. Lol this thread is full of morons
It may not apply to this case, but it certainly does apply in a wide way.
There is also this.
these days, if you say you are English they will lock you up in jail.
Of all the things that never happened, this didn’t happen the most.
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What, where?
In England
There are lots of ways to hide money and protect your assets, and many of them perfectly legal.
Lot of it stems from laws made to protect regular people in debt (bankruptcy laws, getting rid of debtors prison, etc) but people with money use them too
Imo it’s a worthwhile price. Otherwise credit cards would just take money straight from your wages if they could.
Not when one of his victims has terminal cancer and can’t cash out because Jones is playing keep away through the courts.
The problem is, shitty people are always going to abuse the laws. The goal, or at least the purported goal, is to minimize how many people get hurt when the law is abused.
Because America is entirely broken.
Completely empty comment just shitting on America, overwhelmingly upvoted. Lol what a fucking joke this place can be.
You’re free to leave. Unlike what America is becoming… you’ve got that freedom here.
Bye.
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You’re right, I can leave. Although I have that freedom in America too, so I’m not sure why you think that statement made any sense.
And just like with America I can stay and try to make it better. But I just regularly get reminded how low the common denominator is here. Keep defending it. Really proving what an intellectual independent thinker you are.
Yawn.
Whatever you say; Captain America. Should you be ironing your cape in preparation for the next big battle with…. everyone that thinks differently than you?
I call out an empty comment and you interpret that as attacking anyone who thinks differently than me? Brilliant. Lol
Maybe you should try to stop being so angry moving forward. I would like that for you.
Explaining the many reasons why America is broken could take quite a while. Some sentiments are best summed up in a few words.
The post isn’t about America, they could have easily explained why this particular system is broken. But, hey, empty shitting on America is simple and sure to get some upvotes. Definitely what we should all be aiming for.
You’ve somehow missed that Alex Jones is a US citizen, and part of the reason he can earn money from this game is because the US is so broken.
None of that is hard to understand.
Lol I love how I missed something that wasn’t even said. Why not just admit you really don’t know what’s wrong? Or that, for all you know this could be progressing normally and reasonably?
It’s one of the shittier things about Lemmy.
He’s jumping through all the hoops rich folks use to hide their money, which means the courts have to jump through the hoops to get at it, and the court system is slow by comparison.
Sad when you realized who wrote the rules. Fairness is a dream.
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Valve allows this?
Valve allows a lot of games I’d question like the Kyle riddenhouse game or whatever that loser is that went across state borders to shoot people.
i just don’t see how hard it could be to assassinate alex jones. pretty sure 3 or 4 intelligent people could coordinate the whole thing.
It wouldn’t be worth it. Better to humiliate him and release the contents of his poorly hidden porn folders.
It’s more complicated than that. Probably best he dies of normal causes so no insane conspiracy’s pop up. Even then that’s too good for him.
oh no. let his idiot followers think it was a conspiracy. the more riled up they get, the more likely they’ll do something stupid that ends with them in prison or dead. no, let’s stir the pot.
I don’t think my sanity can tolerate more insane shit. Living in the US sucks.
i think the next time they grab up torches and pitchforks, the military will intervene. that’s probably our best hope since most of the good citizens of the left are cowards. the sooner we get it over with, the sooner this country can go forward.
Interesting assumption that the military would not be divided.
the more likely they’ll do something stupid that ends with them in prison or dead
That would quite possibly also entail them killing random innocent people or indoctrinating more. No thanks.
…and take a shit ton of innocent people with them.
That’s not how things work, though. Sure, some of them would wind up in prison. So? A negligible impact.
Do you think January 6 was organic? If so, you haven’t been following the investigations. It was an attempted coup, and the more people the extremist right can get riled up and ready to commit violence where directed, the more likely the next attempt is to succeed.
That’s how you create a martyr, galvanize a movement, and create mass condemnation against whatever cause you stand for.
This is simply false. His followers are cowards. They will do nothing. .
Who said they weren’t?
If some fool killed Jones, his followers would say his name for generations, talking about how he was killed by the deep state for telling the truth. They would spread his words further and more than they do now. People who don’t think much about him, or people who think he’s probably full of shit but like to listen to him for fun, and entertain his ideas a little, would suddenly take him more seriously, becoming followers as well. People who would argue against his lies now, will feel uncomfortable speaking out. For at least a while, anyone who tried to debunk his views would suddenly be painted as disrespecting the dead, at best, and viewed with suspicion. What it’s possible to talk about would shift right, extremism and conspiracy theories becoming more acceptable, facts and reason becoming less so. In the midst of it all, some new spokesperson for the lunatic fringe would rise up and replace him seamlessly.
And maybe they are cowards, but cowards are motivated by fear, and people motivated by fear often lash out violently.
3 or 4? 1 person is with a $300 Walmart hunting rifle could pull it t off.
People don’t realize how much one dedicated person and a decent rifle can do, especially when no one is expecting it and the assassin doesn’t care about their future or anything but their objective
Hell do it dc sniper style, park a car and modify the trunk.
No one would see anything but an empty car parked down the block from his house or office.
Not sure this is a valve problem. The courts are simply going to have to seize his assets.
This is an absolutely a valve problem.
I mean, it’s just a game. The shitty part isn’t on Steam’s side; It’s on Alex hiding funds and refusing to pay for the lawsuits he lost.
Valve will allow anything if they can profit from it.
War is profitable. So I hear.
I mean… Half the games on steam are about war
Valve is a soulless corporation that only cares about money. Why wouldn’t they?
Yeah true
Why not? It’s not like the kids are going to boycott them. Boycotts are only for easy to refuse things. Or things that sound good in a instagram post.
Not for actual thinks they like and can’t live without.
Edit: Nvm I understand now!
Valve allowing that dingus to sell a game while refusing to pay his victims families?
Sounds like a good reason to boycott to me.
But no one will.
Oh, I understand now! Yes, that would be an excellent reason for a boycott, but it never works because people never seem to be willing to sacrifice even the smallest amount of convenience for the greater good. I’d be in, and a lot of others probably would be too, but how does one even organize something like that? I think that’s another part of the problem. For a boycott to work, it has to be well planned and organized.
I boycott Nestlé, and I have ran into someone in the world who does the same.
So in my little town if there is a chance that the two of us ran into each other at the same Walmart, right as I was explaining to my kid why we couldn’t buy that type of bottled water, I think that there are a bunch of us boycotting nestle while unorganized.
Overtime cents add up to dollars, even if we can’t bring them down, we can still help them not grow as quickly.
Exactly my thoughts. Well said. Though, under normal circumstances, people would be absolutely outraged by this and the shockwave would be spreading across all platforms to boycott immediately-
but mUh gAmEz?!
So…. It won’t happen.
That’s how boycotts have always worked. Boycotts have only been successful when people already didn’t like the thing they were boycotting.
I looovvveee tollhouse cookies, crunch bars, KitKats and stouffer’s French bread pizzas but I still don’t buy them, even though they are like the only people to make a wide range of frozen dinners, and I am not even a little bit salty about it, definitely, not at all…
So yeah, some people do stick to their morals over creature comforts.
Even when it really sucks.
I did just remember Schwann’s is a thing though, so maybe nestle is good for something at least.
To the best of my knowledge Valve allows basically everything that’s not outright illegal. They aren’t nearly as much of a “good” corporation as they’re often framed as. They’ll happily provide a platform for and take their 30% from anyone, including racists, misogynists, homophobes, etc.
Or maybe they don’t see it’s their place to gatekeep the store based on their own morals. If you start - where do you draw the line? Some examples like such games may be obvious, but there will be a lot more that are less so.
If people disagree with the message - nobody forces them to buy it after all and you can block any game from even showing up for you in the store, in my opinion it’s plenty enough from the valve’s part. I’d rather be the judge myself as to what I want and what I don’t want to see and play, rather than any corporation.
They used to disallow adult games, they don’t allow NFT or crypto.
They have drawn plenty of lines, and moved them when it benefits them. They are just like any other corporation, they just hide it really well and the fans forgive or hide the rest for them.
Didn’t they also rule against AI artwork? Seems that where their pocket book and legal worries are concerned, Valve treads lightly. Moral concerns and societal obligations? Not so much.
They also told a dev to stop developing a game since if they gave the go ahead Nintendo could potentially go after them.
They care about money more than anything else, just like any other corporation.
I don’t think you need to care about money more than anything else to realize that avoiding a potential lawsuit from a notoriously litigious and powerful company is a wise decision
They could have given a different answer, or worked with them to find a solution, but they went with the cheapest and easiest.
As I said earlier, fans excuse and hide the rest.
Are you talking about the dolphin emulator per chance?
Pretty sure they’re talking about Portal 64
Portal 64, they used the non open source code/tools, so Nintendo does have a bit of a case, hence why they are hesitant to give permission after the dev asked them.
One of those if they never asked, probably wouldn’t be an issue since valve never “knew of it”.
No, someone was developing a fan demake of a valve game for the Nintendo 64, and since the tools to develop a game for the Nintendo 64 aren’t legally available and it’s being used for valve’s IP then nintendo would be able to go after valve.
NFT and crypto would shoehorn in on their gun skin casino they market to children
I find the “where do you stop” argument to be riddled with holes. Laws are essentially written to explicitly outline boundries and moderation policies are basically just internal laws. Like Canadian law has very specific laws regarding what constitutes hate speech, here is what that looks like.
First you outline protected grounds. In Canada this is race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability and conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted. (note: pardons are only available via democratic votes or through appeals in Canada)
There’s a stage where you determine what context stuff is in. Like whether it is being performed publicly or privately but marketing a video game is definitely publicly so in tgis context we can skip to it’s last part where you explicitly define hate speech. Hate speech is rhetoric that :
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Describes group members as animals, subhuman or genetically inferior
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Suggests group members are behind a conspiracy to gain control by plotting to destroy western civilization
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Denying, minimizing or celebrating past persecution or tragedies that happened to group members
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Labelling group members as child abusers, pedophiles or criminals who prey on children Blaming group members for problems like crime and disease
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Calling group members liars, cheats, criminals or any other term meant to provoke a strong reaction including usage of known slurs in the context of intended harm to group members.
These rules likely wouldn’t touch some hateful rhetoric that sneaks through under the wire disguised in very abstracted metaphor but it creates a pretty distinct pass fail bar that would catch explicit hate speech on their platform.
By those rules we can’t even criticize Hamas or Houthis
Yes you can.
Those groups are not fully in religious in nature but represent in part a political movement with a history of violence. As long as the ire is not placed on the entirety of the faith, a particular sect that is enacting it’s ideology based on violence is not a criticism based from the religion but by the actions of the group as a political and military force. Still not cool to infer they are genetically inferior or sub human or even that they are all pedophiles or something but the fact that they have been actually commiting specific crimes as an organized group means that they are free game to be critiqued for their crimes.
You can also actively critique the writings and dogma of a religion itself but the hate speech portion doesn’t kick in until imply that the people who follow it are mentally ill, inferior, predisposed to crime or all going to enact all the practices listed in their holy texts that represent a modern illegal practice etc. etc. etc.
There is a distinction between nationality and government/ politics as well. You can absolutely exercise free critique of someone as long as it is not based on the criteria of their national origin. As long as you stick to talking about the facts of what specific individuals or political groups have actually been accredited as doing you are in the clear.
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The problem with that is that providing a platform and a revenue stream is providing support. Whatever the intent is, that is the result. The issue isn’t what I see on the Steam store, it’s providing a platform at all.
And yes, obviously there’s the question of where to draw the line. But not drawing one at all means providing support for the Alex Joneses of the world. There’s no way around that. And I don’t think that that’s a worthwhile trade.
Valve allows basically everything that’s not outright illegal
While true, and I agree it’s the right thing to do, some things like this and the Rittenhouse game are in a weird murky gray area where one could argue that it’s inciting violence etc. And if that someone is a lawyer, they could convince a judge/jury that it is illegal.
I agree that they should allow anything that isn’t illegal, but people say this like it’s black and white, and legality very much is not black and white.
This is too bad, but yes. They are like any other large corporation, I suppose – motivated primarily by greed.
Unless it pisses off the Chinese government, like the game Devotion that was released from a Taiwanese developer. But I don’t think Steam has a high ground so much as it has good PR while not being extremely greedy. In contrast, GOG also removed it, which sort of discredited any high ground they had.
Look, people need something to play after they’ve finished Hogwarts Legacy.
No matter what side you’re on, this is a quality joke.
And unfortunately, that Stormfront Doom mod isn’t on Steam afaik.
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What’s up with Hogwarts legacy? It’s one of the most progressive minded games I’ve ever played, so much so that J.K.Rowling herself tried to taint it by saying money that went to that game supported her views instead of the views in the game. Even though she doesn’t get any residuals from sales. She tried to tank sales to get back at them for making an open minded game instead of one that aligns with her views.
It’s one of the most progressive minded games I’ve ever played
That is such an incredibly low bar. What passes as progressive values in AAA games is just a shoehorned and saccharine checklist progressiveness. I can almost understand why the chuds get annoyed because playing some games can be like bad corporate DEI training.
Right wing ideology meanwhile is baked into gameplay. It doesn’t matter much if the themes are anti-racist so long as every problem can be solved with the right gun. It doesn’t matter if you’re a socialist state in a strategy game who’s economy is straight out of the Chicago school.
A couple games get it right. “This War of Mine” shows you what’s happening in the out of bounds areas of Call of Duty. “Darkest Dungeon” is a microscope on the exploitation of capitalism. But good luck finding something like this in the AAA space.
Fun fact the game can be beaten in 45 minutes and steam refund policy allows returns on games played 2 hours or less
That is a fun fact. Here’s an ever funner fact: Don’t give your money to assholes and then take it back. Just like, don’t give it to them in the first place.
True… But if you buy and return it you can give it a negative review?
Now we’re talkin’
I live in the middle of nowhere and rely on amazon sadly just not possible for me
I’m pretty sure steam has like a 3 month lag time to pay out anyway.
Doesn’t make sense. You give them money. Enjoy (only some do enjoy) the game. Get money back. Net sum is positive if the game was fun for you.
If you read the reviews for it, you can 100% beat the game in about 25-35 minutes and return it for a full refund. I was tempted to do that but I didn’t want to enticed anyone else to buy it who may not play such a game on the devs.
But then you could also review bomb it right?
I think reviews from users who refunded aren’t counted in the overall score.
They really should be… If you’re refunding because a game is shit then it makes sense to review it as such to warn others
Too bad- if a game sucks and you return it, you should be score to thumbs down and write a review of why.
You can do anything if you believe in yourself.
This article invests a lot of effort trying to make it look like it’s all Steam’s responsibility.
It IS their store.
Which makes them responsible for enforcing that he pays to the families?
It makes them responsible for giving a platform to a libelous hatemonger.
No, but still, its a private business, they could have refuse to publish this dirtbag’s game. But yeah it’s capitalist world so as long as it makes money its ok.
Anyone know if it would it be worth reporting this as Defamatory on Steam? There are options for Legal Violation, Harmful, Fraud, Defamatory…without having played it it’s hard to throw it in any of those specific categories, because they mostly have to do with the software itself, though Defamation might work since I’d be surprised if the content doesn’t contain defamatory statements (even if they’re wrapped in attempted irony for legal wiggle room).
I flagged it as harmful because it isn’t directly related to the defamation case. But I’m sure either gets your point across, and if Valve gets enough complaints maybe they’ll actually realize they don’t need a man criminally liable for misusing media, to benefit spreading media on their platform.
I flagged it as Child Exploitation for the simple fact one of the screenshots says Epstein Island…
Followed suit. Cheers.
That’s a good idea.
It isnt though wasting a companies resources for false child exploitation accusations ties up those limited resources to investigate actual child endangerment.
Dont forget to report Google too they have the gall to host this on their servers!1!1 man I bet if any realtor tries to list it for sale we can get them too!! We should never see anything about it existing ever again so people forget about it! /S if it isnt painfully obvious.
Shit, better report me too! I shared a picture of Epstein Island from google search!!
I’d report you just for not removing everything after the ? in your dumb link
Please do explain how showing a picture of Epstein Island is child exploitation. I would love to have that make sense. If there was a daycare that hurt children and I had a picture of the outside of the daycare how in the fuck is that Child exploitation? Its a game about conspiracy theories and political events. That dude who ran that island mysteriously died with no cameras on him and some new guards that were asleep. A lot of people know he did not kill himself so that being unprovable makes it a conspiracy theory which is no surprise it would make it to a game about conspiracy theories. Fuck Alex Jones but also fuck a bunch of dumbasses wasting Valves time and reasources reporting shit that isnt happening. God you people are STUPID I dont understand how people can be so out of touch with the reality around them. Also harmful reportings? Go take a look at the top games on steam especially the Hentai ones where the thousand year old characters look like children THATS child exploitation but showing a picture of espstein island is not child exploitation. You can google pictures of Epstein Island right now, pages upon pages should I report Google for child exploitation? Common sense is dead
M O N E T I Z A T I O N
(And yes Japanese anime pedo culture is gross too but that’s just a red herring regarding this)
Also, “wasting valves time” gtfo… They made a billion dollars off skins in loot crates, they have plenty of fucking “time.”
Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck I hate the dude too and he should pay his debts but my god dude how is it anymore harmful than like a million other games that exist? Pirate the shit. But reporting it for child exploitation like that one dude said because it showed Epstein Island is moronic as fuck its a game about conspiracy theories and it isnt any more harmful or defaming than a million other games that exist right now on steam. It doesnt show children being exploited. One thing I notice on Lemmy a lot is people who are like “well I dont like this so other people shouldnt get to like it either.” Fucking christ just pirate the damn game so you dont give him money or dont play it if the courts dont get bought off then their should be no problem with them seizing the money he made off the game. But to report it for child exploitation and defamation is mega fucking stupid my god
Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck
You said, in your comment to my comment…
Look: you’re putting so many words in my mouth, it’s probably not worth replying, so…
You’re reporting a game youve never even played for made up reasons because you dont like the guy who made it. I read your comment and didnt put any words in your mouth
Read my comment again then, because I didn’t say I had reported it, or even that i would. I still haven’t.
I was specifically asking if it’s even worth reporting, since it would be mostly because he’s a grifter and this seems shady. Again though, I offer no solid reason why, other than wanting him to just go away.
Lock him up (for life, 0 chance of getting out), Access his bank accounts, pay out the damn families already, forget about him and let him rot in there.
Lock him up (for life, 0 chance of getting out)
Defamation is a civil matter, so there’s no chance of this. There’s really only one case in the US where someone can be locked up for failing to pay what they owe from a civil court decision, and that’s child support.
:(
Ooooo TALKING = LIFE SENTENCE . Maybe you should talk a therapist and let the anger out peacefully. Don’t involve your emotions. Surely a rational person cannot think that is a reasonable punishment.
Depends on what they’re talking about.
e.g. “Let’s plan a murder” vs. “Let’s plan dinner”
Do you like Alex Jones?
(Most sane supporter of him)
Do you think he did the shooting himself?
He is one of the key figures leading a mob that has made the lives of parents a living hell.
.
Can’t they just garnish his shit and empty his bank accounts?
They will, but he threw up roadblocks that the court has to move through. He moved his money behind dummy corporations that the court has to investigate first before they can “pierce the corporate veil,” for example.
Surely that could be interpreted as being in contempt of court. Just lock his ass up and throw away the key.
Yeah, that makes sense. Thx
If this was a fair and just county, sure
if
They just hate our freedoms cause they anus
I do find it weird that Steam actually had this as a game pushed to me. Not sure if that was targeted due to other game choices I’ve made, but I saw the ad and laughed and shook my head.
Alex Jones got to his position by gaming the advertisement system for self-promotion. I can’t say I’m shocked to see his video game once again exploiting the Steam store’s algorithm, just like he’d gamed the YouTube and Twitter algorithms before.
You’ll see Ann Coulter do the same thing with book sales. Have someone straw-purchase 10,000 copies of “Smelly: The Liberal Campaign To Fart A Lot And How It Is Destroying America”, and rocket to the top of the Best Seller Lists.
I think Regnery Press does that last bit all the time…I don’t know if people that maintain such lists take that kind of thing into account or not. And yeah, I have no trouble believing that Lil Alex found some demon willing to help him game the Steam system.
I don’t know if people that maintain such lists take that kind of thing into account or not
It takes more work to find out who is purchasing the books, particularly if the publisher includes straw-purchases as part of its marketing strategy and therefore has an incentive to report their number inaccurately.
I have no trouble believing that Lil Alex found some demon willing to help him game the Steam system.
He’s got enough money to simply do it himself (or outsource the process to professionals). Sort of a priming-the-pump method to marketing. Its very possible that the vig Steam gets from your straw purchases is less than the cost of paying them upfront to advertise your game. Also possible he’s doing both, in which case Steam has a strong economic incentive not to discourage this behavior.
At one time the NY Times bestseller list put this dagger (†) icon at the end of the summary when it happened. That way people in the know would get it was because of bulk sales.
But I think NYT changed how they do their best seller list to be a survey of booksellers, and probably just don’t include bulk sales at all anymore. But I don’t know. But if you see a dagger on a bestseller list, it means shenanigans are afoot. (†)
The sad thing is that the people most likely to know about the shenanigans are the ones least likely to fall for Regnery schemes in the first place…those least likely to know are the target audience of Regnery, etc…
Yeah but it’s probably well beyond the scope of making a best seller list to convince the people that have already been fooled by these scammers that these people are scammers.
Don’t under estimate how many conspiracy theorists and conservatives are on Steam. A good portion of my friends list is fractured after 2016 and 2020
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I get pushed conservative bullshit all the time in ads, but almost never on steam. Part of it is that I’ve intentionally limited the spread of my personal information and also given out more false information than real, so Google isn’t sure if I’m an 84 year old woman in Montana or a 23 year old man using a VPN from Wales. They end up just pushing targeted ads for those vague locations.
EDIT: Pro Tip, if a signup asks for an address for any reason other than shipping/billing then you can just enter a random church address and it usually works.
I usually just put 123 Main Street, Schenectady, NY 12345. Most places don’t even check to see if it’s a real address.
I usually go with 123 Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210
I think there are some plugins that will autofill things like that? Not sure what the current best one is.
Even the word autofill causes cringe to me, so I’ve definitely never heard of it.
If they know where money is coming from, aren’t there legal mechanisms to take it directly from Valve?
Well I’m glad I didn’t buy that, I didn’t know he was actually associated with it financially. Figured it was the right kind of joke, not something tacky, tasteless, and stupid
When I was looking through the discussion hub for it there are so many banned accounts lol. It’s a ‘joke’ only as much as people say they were joking when they say ‘jews control the media’ or something, it’s full of racist memes.
What a dirtbag. I just had to explain to someone younger what that “infowars” sticker on someone’s car means.
The TL;DR version is: “avoid that person”.
Despite my usual attitude towards free speech, I will put in the effort to peel an “Infowars” sticker off of a pole if it looks like easy prey.
Fuck Alex Jones and all the conspiracist bullshit he stands for
This was on a car; I won’t mess with someone’s car. But in any case, I don’t think free speech applies to whipping up a mob to harass grieving parents. Some of these people had to move multiple times and the stochastic terrorism still went on. For over a decade. He’s screaming fire in a crowded theater, or worse. He can f right off with that kind of “free speech”.
Back in the 90s, I found Alex to be a rather humorous curiosity in the same realm as high weirdness in other areas like the Discordians or Church of the Subgenius only without the humor; these days I find him and his followers to be a threat to society. I think 9/11 and then, later, the likes of donnie really, really put him into a dark place. That, and the pursuit of filthy lucre.
For sure, Jones’ right to free speech should have been curtailed long ago.
I’m more referring to the sticker poster’s speech. I won’t deny people the right to promote their ideology, but when that ideology is having fallen for a con man then it’s not legitimate in any way. Same goes for Scientology or other exploitative crap.
Fuck Alex Jones
Agreed. After his Bohemian Grove success he was only in it for the money.
and all the conspiracist bullshit he stands for
Hang on. Are you saying the public should unquestionably believe everything the government and corporations tell us?
No, just that you should get your information from verifiable sources and not from people who profit from making up “truth”.
There are plenty of real conspiracies out there and they’re mostly boring - schemes to swindle the last dollars out of the public pocket.
You rarely hear about these from people who deal in “conspiracy theories” though.
you should get your information from verifiable sources and not from people who profit from making up “truth”.
Totally agree. This definition includes CEO, marketing departments, news outlets and politicians working for lobbyists and corporate sponsors.
very cool America
I’m curious. What would you like “America” to do in this situation?
Have an actually functioning legal and economic system so people like this can’t be created nor have this sort of power in the first place? When you have criminals running businesses making bank, multi-millionaires even, while not giving his victims the compensation that they’re supposed to be getting, you’ve fucked up. Seize his assets and distribute them to the people who he defamed, take all of his earnings except for the bare minimum he needs to survive until this debt is paid off (which it won’t be since it’s far more than he could ever pay anyways). That’s what he should expect if he disobeys legal orders and refuses to do the bare minimum in paying victims out.
They already froze his assets and are in the processes of collecting for the families. They already ruled bankruptcy is not an excuse not to pay.
The legal systems seems to agree with what you want the desired outcome to be. I guess the only difference is you want to government to be able to have full control over everything, so they can take it instantly?
America removed the fairness doctrine under Reagan - that action is a direct line to allowing for an Alex Jones. “America” had somewhat functioning structures to prevent unchecked, rampant disinformation on the airwaves, Reagan removed it.
On the brighter side, every time I mention the fairness doctrine I get a brief reminder that Reagan and rush Limbaugh are now both bloated, rotting corpses. The more time passes, history will only remember them as the monsters they were. Their propagandists die off more by the day and eventually only the facts of the damage they did to society will remain
Did Alex Jones ever hold a broadcast license for the fairness doctorine to be applicable?
Pretty sure he got popped a few years ago for his pirate radio. And then got popped with the biggest defamation fine ever.
An alex jones doesn’t become an alex jones without a rush limbaugh and a fox news. And you don’t get a rush limbaugh or fox news at the scale of influence they had without what reagan did to the Fairness Doctrine.
They would have otherwise stayed on the fringe, where they belong (if anywhere) to make their spurious, wholly unfounded claims about how the children that were shot in the face with an assault rifle weren’t shot in the face with an assault rifle.
As in the US justice system? Actually follow his money trail and stop it where ever he hides it until he has payed back every cent of the bill he owns.
