Alex Jones loses in court, again

I'm sure Alex Jones is no stranger to most skeptics. The Info Wars host has an illustrious history of pushing nonsense ideas about the US - from the ridiculous (chemicals in the water supply are turning the frogs gay) to the downright dangerous (restriction of gun rights will cause a second revolution in the US). And somewhere in the midst of all that nonsense, Alex Jones decided to start pushing the ridiculous theory that the Sandy Hook massacre of school children in the US was a false flag operation, secretly organised by the government as a way to push for tighter gun controls.

It's been great in this case that some of the grieving parents have decided not to let Jones get away with spreading his hurtful conspiracy theory, and there have been numerous lawsuits brought against him. The courts are not having a bar of Jones' lawyers' efforts to avoid paying out the money from cases he's already lost in court - and on Thursday a Texas judge gave a “default judgement” against Jones, citing his repeated inability to follow the court's orders to hand over documents.

Jones is no stranger to being in court, and has tried to use a variety of arguments to wheedle his way out of facing the consequences of his reckless actions. For some of his Sandy Hook lawsuits he's tried to argue that his falsehoods are protected under free speech. When his ex-wife fought for custody of their children during divorce proceedings, she cited his erratic behaviour on InfoWars as evidence that he is unstable and should not be trusted to look after their kids. Jones' lawyers' response was to claim that Alex Jones is nothing more than a “performance artist”, and that he doesn't really mean the things that he says on InfoWars. If any of you are unsure what Jones' ex-wife means when she calls him unstable, here's a fun clip from John Oliver back in 2017 where he documents not only some of Jones' crazy outbursts, but also his unethical pushing of dubious health products:

It's great to see Jones finally having to face the music. I have no doubt that he will keep fighting to avoid justice, but I am hopeful that once all his avenues for appeal are exhausted, his rash words will have cost him dearly, and the people he has wronged will take enough of his money that his misinformation spreading media group will cease to exist.

Eagle eyed committee member Jonathon Harper spotted a funny piece of art at the Thistle Hall in Wellington the other day. I'm not very good at deciphering art, but I get the feeling this one might be a commentary on the prevalence of nonsense cure-alls that are all too often advertised to us with over-inflated claims.

Committee member Daniel Ryan has been working hard on posting stories relevant to skeptics on our Facebook Page recently (the page is different to our Facebook groups, which are more conversational). After reading about this weekend's anti-lockdown protest organised by Destiny Church, he was motivated to write the following: